How to Train Your Girl
by HowToTrainYourDragonStories
Summary: Hiccup's village is always attacked by girls with supernatural powers and abilities. Hiccup only messes things up, but then, he does what no Viking ever accomplished; shot down the girl no one's ever seen, Flandre. But instead of making his wish come true, Hiccup starts a forbidden friendship with her. How long will he be able to mantain her as a secret?
1. Chapter 1

_**Chapter 1: This is Berk**_

* * *

"**This, is Berk.**

**It's about twelve days north of hopeless and a few degrees south of freezing to death. It's located solidly in the Meridian of Misery.**

**My village. In a word? Sturdy, and it's been here for seven generations but every single building is new. **

**We have fishing, hunting, and charming views to the sunsets.**

**The only problems are our unwelcomed guests. You see, most places might have robbers, or soldiers. We have…"**

It's nighttime, and I'm asleep. Well, asleep till I hear the alarm. I'm really tired, and I don't wanna know what's happening right now, unless things get worse. I roll on my bed, trying to sleep again. Too late. The sound of explosions and warriors screaming wakes me up again, scaring me this time. Scaring me to the point of falling off my bed with a gasp. I get nervous as I look around my bedroom, dazed. I hate being awoken like this. The outside sounds are still being heard, getting even louder and louder. Not a surprise that I'm so stressed right now, that kind of alarm is only heard when _they _come. I put on my coat and boots and race faster than ever down the stairs. I open the door. The first thing I see is a few warriors running away with weapons, such as hammers and axes, on their hands. The next, I see the reason of why. Their chaser is an apparently young girl -but trust me, she's not- with white-blue hair and a red dress, that stops various meters away from me. She moves her angry gaze to me. My eyes open wide as I see a flame growing slowly on her left hand. A flame that seconds later she throws at me door, which I close shut with my back. I feel the hot of the explosion on the wooden door right behind me. The fire gets through the sides like lava.

"_Girls…!" _I say to myself, as I open the now burning door.

Oh, so you thought these are normal girl, huh? Think again. And you'll see why.

The scene I have on the outside is a real chaos. Fire, multicolored sparks, smoke, shadows and ashes cover the earth and sky, along with battle cries, furious screams and my whole tribe fighting the girls. I see a man running away from a blond witch. Another warrior (really short, by the way…) is hanging on the back of a girl with blue hair and bat-like wings. The man is thrown away just some moments later. I get out of the house, and turn around to see if it's closed. It is, the only problem is that it might fall off because of the fire. Duh. But I'm used to this, so I won't give it so much importance.

"**Most people would leave. Not us, we're Vikings. We have… stubbornness issues".**

I run as I can through the crowd.

"**My name's Hiccup. Great name, I know. But it's not the worst. Parents believe a hideous name will frighten off gnomes and trolls".**

An explosion near me, along with people running, makes me fall, as another Viking lands almost on top of me. He screams in my face, then says "Mornin'!"cheerily and rushes to the fight. It's not even morning yet, but after these attacks, we rarely sleep again and stay awake repairing the damage.

"**Like if our charming Viking demeanor wouldn't do that".**

I run up the walkway, trying to reach the blacksmith stall. I see various warriors passing by without stopping.

"What are you doing here?" someone says.

"Get inside!"other Viking yells. The thing doesn't stop.

People saying_ "_Hiccup, get back inside!" and "Go back inside!"are very current. I run past a Viking named Ack, who's just picking his ear and doesn't even notice me.

Right then, a hand lifts me up by the back of my shirt. An angry "Hiccup!" is heard from the man that grabbed me. "What is he doing out agai- What're you doing out? Get inside!" the beefy man says, as he shoves me towards… anywhere he wants me to go.

"**That's Stoick the Vast. Chief of the Tribe".**

Stoick is a _really _muscular man. Tall, with a long and flowing red beard.

"**They say when he was a baby he scared off one of the most powerful girls".**

I see him lifting up a big, wooden cart that casually is behind him, and throws it without effort to the same witch I saw earlier. She doesn't fall off her 'magical flying broom' thing, instead she stumbles and gets a good shake before taking away.

"**Do I believe it? Yes I do".**

"Which do we have?" he says to anyone that can listen to him.

"Yukari, Marisa, Remilia, oh, and Hoark says he saw Mokou!" a man answers quickly.

Another flame, like the one that reached my house, explodes next to them. The Viking covers himself with his shield, while Stoick doesn't even flinch about it.

"Anyone saw _her_?" he asks as a burning piece of shrapnel lands on his shoulder.

"_Not so far" _the same man says, his worried and desperate tone cannot be hidden.

"_Good" _Stoick says relieved, as he brushes off the flaming piece from his plate.

I restart my race towards the stall. Man, it looks like its _kilometers _away. The smoke doesn't let me see anything, and I might have been running in circles. Finally I reach for it. Without slowing down, I enter. The blacksmith is sweating like it was a summer morning. I'm sure it's because of his heavy hammer, attached to his arm… thing. "Oh, nice of you to join the party! I thought you'd been carried off!" he says as I enter. I put on my apron and turn to him.

"No heh, me? Nah, come on, I'm waaaaay too muscular for their tastes!" I say. "The wouldn't know what to do with all… this!" I say with a huge smirk as I flex my missing biceps.

"Well, you'll scare them, right?" he says jokingly.

I handle the warrior's weapons, which they place on the window.

"**The meathead with attitude and interchangeable hands is Gobber. I've been his apprentice since I was little. We'll… little-er" **

I hear Stoick's voice from the outside, which catches my attention. I look out the window. "We'll move to the lower defenses! Counter attack with the catapults!" he yells as he starts running towards the catapults with his men. Right then, another flame makes a house explode behind him.

"**See? Old village, lots and lots of new houses".**

"Fire!" someone shouts. From the distance, a female voice speaks. "All right, guys, let's go!"

I recognize that voice. I look to where it came from, and see four teens around my age grabbing wooden buckets and filling them with water from a pit.

"**Oh, and those are Fishlegs (he's chubby, but knows a lot of things. He's blond, and his arms are even wider than me, but he's not strong at all. His legs are so short that it's hard to notice them), Snoutlout (a beefy guy that's always smirking. He thinks he's the best Viking, and **_**always **_**teases me for any single thing I do. His eyes are intimidating and his hair is black), the twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut (brother and sister that love doing dangerous things and hate each other. They're both blond and their hair is long. They insult everything and everyone. And they never share. In fact, they're fighting over a bucket right now), and…"**

The last teen, the girl I heard before, throws the water off her bucket to the fire. Right as she turns around, another explosion (probably made by that witch, Marisa, as it looks more like a magical one than a normal one) hits the house. The explosion is beautiful with her walking like nothing happens.

"…**Astrid…"**

I've never, _never_ seen anyone as beautiful as Astrid. And I'll never see such person. Astrid is perfect, the only thing is that she acts like I'm not there whenever I try to talk to her.

They all run past my window. I lean out of it, almost getting out, when Gobber grabs me with his hook, hand, thing… whatever.

"Oh, come on, let me out please, I need to make my mark!"

He lets me down.

"Oh you've made _plenty_ of marks! All in the wrong places!"

"Please, two minutes, I'll go out there and nothing will happen! I might even get a date" I add as I point to the direction Astrid went.

Before saying anything, Gobber stares at me for some seconds.

"You can't lift a hammer, you can't swing an axe" he starts counting. Then, he grabs a rope with iron balls attached to its ends.

"You can't even throw one of these!"

From the window, someone snatches it out. He starts running in the opposite direction to the stall, spins the bola, and throws it to Remilia, that girl with the bat-like wings. I'm sure she won't take long to let herself free.

"Okay, okay" I say as I back up. "But this will throw it for me" I stand next to my invention, the bola-launcher. I just barely touch it when it makes a rusty sound as it shakes. It throws a bola at Gobber, who quickly gets out of the way and hits a customer on the head. He falls backwards.

Gobber advances on me. "See? This here is what I'm talking about!"

I have to quickly think an excuse, because I don't know what the deal with the machine is. "A mild calibration issue-"

"No, Hiccup" he says, cutting me off. "If you ever want to go out there, fight those girls, you need to stop all… this" he points at me.

"But you just pointed to _all _of me!"

"Exactly! Stop being all of you" he says reliantly.

"Oooh" I say nodding, trying to sound intimidating.

Gobber imitates me, repeating my gesture. "Oooh, yeah"

"You- you sir, are playing a dangerous game. Keeping all this much… _raw _Viking-ness contained- there'll be consequences!" I proclaim as I wave my finger to his face. The whole time I've been talking, Gobber stared at me in total disinterest.

"I'll take my chances" he says as he turns around and handles me a heavy sword. I need both arms to handle it. "Sword. Sharpened. Now".


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2: I did it**_

* * *

"**One day, I'll get out there. Because fighting one of those girls is **_**everything **_**around here".**

_POV: Anonymous_

A girl with blond and long hair dressed like a witch flies over the village with her broom.

"**Now if I manage to at least take down Marisa I'll surely get noticed".**

From another part of the island, another blond girl dressed with a pink hat and a purple shirt covered by a pink coat sneaks around houses.

"**Yukari is tough. Fighting her will **_**definitely **_**get me a girlfriend".**

There's some fog around an empty house. From behind it, a blue-haired girl with small wings that resemble that of a bat's and red eyes comes out. With a spark, she ignites the fog and creates a violent explosion around the house.

"**Remilia? Hard to see her. But she's twice as hard to defeat than the others".**

Stoick hears something from below the catapult. He looks down, and sees that the lower part is burning.

"**Then, there's Mokou. Only the best Vikings go after her. She has this… nasty habit of covering herself on fire".**

A girl with white hair dressed with a light red but discolored shirt and a red dress covered with paper charms climbs up the catapult tower, her whole body literally covered on fire. She bursts through the weapon's walkway.

"Reload!" Stoick shouts at his men, and then he looks back at Mokou. "I'll take care of this" he says, incredibly calmed for such situation.

With a stick, he whips twice the girl. The stick ends up on fire. Then, Mokou just goes away.

_POV: Hiccup_

"**But the maximum prize is the girl no one's ever seen. We call her-"**

"Flandre Scarlet!" someone shouts from the catapult, warning the others. "Get down!"

A deafening sound makes me look out the window. A sound that's our worst nightmare. It sounds like a cannon ball at an outstanding speed. Then, like from the nothing, a plasma-like explosion hits the catapult Stoick and the others are in. "JUMP!" Stoick yells as he jumps off the catapult.

"**This girl never steals anything, never shows herself, and-"**

Another explosion hits the remains of the catapult, this time destroying it completely.

"**-never misses. **

**No one has ever seen this girl. That's why I'm gonna be the first".**

As I'm leaning out the window, I hear Gobber walking towards me. "Man the fort, Hiccup. They need me out there" he says, placing an axe on his appendage and opening the door. He turns back at me. "Stay… Put… There… You know what I mean" he says awkwardly. With a battle cry, he rushes to the fight. He told me to stay here. I tell myself to go out there. Who's going to stop me anyways? The warriors only tell me to return home, and Stoick and Gobber are way too busy right now. So? What am I waiting for?

Moments later I run the bola-launcher all over the village. I reach a cliff, quickly set up the machine, and wait. I look impatiently at the place in front of me. It's calm, for now.

"Come on, give me some to shot at, give me some to shot at" I pray. I finally get a response. The deafening sound is heard again. This time, the explosion goes for a catapult only meters away from me. Through the explosion, I see an incredibly fast shadow rushing to the woods. My eyes open wide for less than a second, and I shot. The recoil sends me flying and I land on my back. As I'm standing up, I hear the sound the bola makes when it hits something. Then I see and hear it; a pained scream and a shadow falling down a hill.

"Oh… I hit her…" I say almost whispering. Then, silence.

"Yes! I hit her!" I yell in triumph. "Has anybody seen that?" I say, almost making a reverence. I hear something walking towards me, and then something being broken. I turn around, and see Mokou over my bola-launcher, that's completely destroyed. "Except for you…" I say, more frustrated than scared at first.

But that doesn't last for long, as she starts chasing me. I run like I'm crazy to… any site that's safe.

_POV: Stoick_

I managed to get some warriors to hold Marisa, Yukari and Remilia on our special net. Why don't they just escape? There's two clear reasons. One; they're fighting over themselves. Two; they always have fun seeing Hiccup messing up. Talking about him, I hear screams. Screams that sound so familiar. I look behind me and see Hiccup running away from Mokou. I sigh in frustration as I run towards him.

"Do _not _let them escape!" I say to the warriors before taking off.

_POV – Hiccup_

I find a wooden post. A perfect thing to hide. Behind me, I feel the hot explosion of fire. I slowly peek over the pole, expecting to see that Mokou left. I do not see her, but right next to me I feel something. Someone, better said. Before I can turn, though, Stoick appears like from the nothing and drives the girl away from me. She backs up a little and attempts to shot that cursed fire that I'm really getting tired of. But instead of a flame, she just shots a little splat of liquid fire. Yep, she ran out of shots. That happens almost always.

"You're all out" Stoick says. He starts beating the girl with his hammer, harmlessly apparently. She goes away.

Then, the whole village surrounds me and Stoick. The pole, burning, falls off. It breaks a wooden bridge during its fall. From the distance, I see a part of it (as the pole broke in two by the force of the smash) rolling down the walkway. It burns off the net that held the other three girls, who immediately leave, laughing. Stoick looks madly at me.

"**Oh, and there's one more thing you need to know".**

"Sorry… Dad" I apologize. Yes, that's it. Stoick, the chief, the strongest Viking out there, the one that never messes up, the one that takes care of everyone, the one that everyone loves… is my father. Hard to believe, right?

"Ok, but I shot down Flandre" I quickly add with a nervous look on my face. Dad grabs me by the scruff and starts dragging me to my house. As I expected it; he doesn't believe me.

"D' oooooh, it's not like the last few times, Dad, I mean I really actually hit her! You guys were busy and I had a very clear shot!" I try to explain. Dad doesn't even look at me. "She went down just off Raven Point. Let's make a search party before her-"

Then Dad drops me.

"STOP! Just… stop. _Every time _you step outside, disaster falls! Can you not see that I have bigger problems? Winter is almost here and I have an _entire_ village to take care of!"

"Huh, between you and me, the guys can defend by themselves, don't you think?" I say without even thinking.

"This isn't a joke, Hiccup! Why can't you follow the simplest orders?" he says angrily.

"I can't stop myself! I see one of those girls and I have just to… fight her!" I 'explain', making a somehow violent gesture. "It's… who I am, Dad" I finish. Stoick puts his hand over his front like he has a headache or something.

"Oh you're… many things Hiccup. But a girl fighter is not one of them. Get back to the house". I roll my eyes. He's not listening to me. He doesn't believe me. No one does. Dad walks towards Gobber. "Make sure he gets there. I have his mess to clean up".

Gobber gives me a smack on the head, as we start walking. I hear a cackle from Ruffnut. "Quite the performance" Tuffnut jeers. "I've never seen anyone mess up that badly. That helped!" Snoutlout says, once again, smirking.

"Thank you, thank you, I was trying" I say disinterested, hopefully trying to make them to shut up. Fishlegs, as always, doesn't say anything. He rarely teases me. Astrid neither says a word.

As I walk towards my house, I hear Gobber knocking Snoutlout from behind me. I'm sure that didn't work, as I hear him chuckling.

* * *

Walking up the hill to my house, I'm _still _trying to convince Gobber than I shot down that girl.

"I really did hit her" I say softly.

"Sure, Hiccup" Gobber says in the same tone.

"He never listens"

"Oh it runs the family"

"And when he does he's always with this… disappointed scowl. Like someone skimped on the meat on his sandwhich" I jump on the step and turn to Gobber, imitating Stoick's voice. "Excuse me, barmaid, I'm afraid you brought me the wrong offspring! I ordered an extra large boy with beefy arms! Extra guts, and glory on the side! This here, this is a talking fishbone!" Now that I hear myself, my imitation was pretty much awkward. Gobber lets out a really soft giggle as he smiles.

"Now you're thinkin' this all wrong. It's not so much what you look like, it's what's inside that he can't stand!"

I look at him like he just said a non-sensed phrase. "Yeah, thanks for summing that up" I say as I walk to the door. Before opening it Gobber stops me.

"Look, the point is: stop trying so hard to be something you're not!"

"I just wanna be one of you, guys" I say as my voice cracks. I close the door.

Just a few second later, I get out the house from the back door and hurry to the woods. I'm going to prove myself.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: The downed girl**

* * *

_POV: Stoick_

I reunited the whole village on the Great Hall. It's time to get things clear.

"Either we finish them, or they'll finish us!" I start. "It's the only way to get rid of them!"

"How are we going to do so? Each girl lives on a different place!" someone says.

"We'll find the principal zone!"

Some people start to whisper. Many others let gasps of frustration and fear. What I have planned to do is a risk, but if we want to survive, we _have _to.

"We have to find the Scarlet Devil Mansion and destroy it! If we do that, the girls that live there will leave, and they'll get out of this island!" I proclaim as I stab the map with a dagger in the part where the mansion is located, or at least where it's _rumored _to be located. No one's ever been there.

"These ships never come back" someone points out.

"We're Vikings, it's an occupational hazard" I reply to whoever said it.

"And what about the other girls?" I hear Gobber saying.

"Seeing the ones that live in the mansion leaving will make them leave too. Because we managed to enter there, fight them, and destroy their home, and everyone knows they're _way _more powerful than we are! Otherwise, if there are girls that don't leave, we'll find them and fight them till they leave! Now who's with me?"

No answer. Everyone is finding excuses and whispering.

"All right then. Whoever stays behind will look after Hiccup". Immediately, hands rising up are seen all over the Hall, along with animated yells this time. "That's more like it".

Everyone but Gobber leaves. I walk over him. "I'll pack my undies" he says.

"No, I want you to stay here and train some new recruits" I order him.

"Oh perfect! And while I'm busy, Hiccup can cover the store! Molten steel, razor sharp blades, lots of time to himself… What could possibly go wrong?" he says sarcastically.

I sit down on a seat. "What am I going to do with him, Gobber?"

"Put him in training with the others" he says. I hope that was sarcasm too.

"No, I'm serious"

"So am I!"

"He'd be killed even before the first girl enters the arena!" I argue back.

"Oh, ye don't know that" he says as he waves his hand.

"I do know that"

"No, ye don't" he repeats.

"No, actually, I do"

"No ye don't" he repeats once again.

"Listen, you know what he's like. By the time he could crawl he's been… different. He doesn't listen; he has the attention span of a sparrow. I take him fishing and he goes hunting for- for _trolls_!" I say as I stand up and slowly walk around.

"Trolls exist!" Gobber suddenly says. "They steal your socks! But only the left ones, what's with that?"

Ignoring him, I continue. "When I was a boy-"

"Oh, here we go" he whispers.

"-my father told me to bang my head against a rock. I thought it was crazy but I didn't question it. And you know what happened?"

"You got a headache" Gobber says, not really paying attention at me.

"The rock split in two! It taught me what a Viking can do, Gobber. He could crush mountains, level forests, _tame _seas!" I say animated, before collapsing back to the seat. "Even as a boy I knew what I was. What I had to become. Hiccup is not that boy…"

"You can't stop him, Stoick. You can only prepare him" Gobber says softly. I look at him like he just said something crazy.

"Look, I know it seems hopeless but the truth is, you won't be always there to protect him. He's going out there again, he's _probably _out there right now!"

_POV – Hiccup_

* * *

I'm so tired of walking through the forest. In my notebook, lots of black X's cover a page around a minimap of the forest part of the island. They represent the spots I've already checked to see if that girl is around here. I find a place where I haven't checked yet. This must be it, please. I approach it and close my eyes. I open them and… Nothing. I trace another X, but in anger I scrabble all over the page. "Agh, the Gods hate me" I say frustrated as I slam the notebook shut. "Some people lost their knife in the mud, no, not me, I managed to lose a stupid girl in such a small place-" I stop in front of a tree branch as smack it. Then it whips me right on the face.

"Ow!"

I open one eye, and what I see leaves me… freezed. The tree where I smacked the branch from is _totally _ripped in half, and below it there's a small trough covered by grass, rocks and things like that. Animated, I follow the trough. I arrive to a place where the ground rises a few feet. I look over it, and with a gasp, I duck back down in a second. There's… someone down there. I slowly look again over the ground, and see a girl I've never seen on the village before. I come down the embankment and hide behind a boulder. I peck over it to see that girl. She has short, blonde hair, tied into a single ponytail on her left side. She wears a skirt and a vest, with a yellow neckerchief and a pink shirt underneath. She has something that I don't know if call or not 'wings'. They look like those ropes you put on a Christmas tree for decoration. With a closer view I can tell they're made with iron and shards with the form of prisms. The color combination of the crystals is kind of interesting; light blue, blue, purple, pink, orange, yellow, light green and light blue again.

She's bounded on a bola, _my _bola, actually. She looks either unconscious or… dead. Well, she fell fast and hard enough to rip in half a whole tree. She doesn't even breath.

I slowly approach her, then happiness grows all over my body. Let me see, a girl that's tied on my bola and that's just one I've never seen before. This girl must be the legendary Flandre. "Oh, wow, I- I- I did it. Oooh, I did it! This- this fixes everything!" I approach her more and more on each word I say. "I have brought down this mighty gi- ah!" An unexpected movement of her makes me back down to the boulder again. My heart starts pounding ever so fast. Here I am, with the girl no one's ever seen and rumored to be the most powerful one, only a few feet in front of me. As I look back at her, trying to get my breathing steady, I see her opening an eye. A red eye that stares into your soul. Although I'm really close to her, she doesn't anything more than breathe heavily and look _directly _at me. Her pupil is dilated to a tiny dot. This same expression is seen on other girls when they are fighting and are about to lose; it's fear. She's afraid of me? I don't understand it, as the things people say about her, she could just untie herself from the rope and kill me that easy. But she doesn't. Why?

Maybe the force of the impact with the tree, the ground and maybe the boulder I have behind me was way too strong and she's now badly hurt.

Time passes. She's still there, looking at me. She _knows _I have a knife with me and that I could use it at anytime. But… Just seeing her makes me feel horribly bad. She's bound on a strong rope, maybe the strongest rope anyone ever made, hurt, dazed, and scared. And it's all my fault. "I did this…" I say ashamed as Flandre closes her eye and lowers her head. I take some steps back to the village when I realize that I can't go away just like that. I look at her, then at my blade. I made this problem. Now I'll fix it.

I start cutting off the ropes. I saw back and forth the first one I see. Then another one. Everything good for now. Just as I finish cutting off a third rope, I feel myself being pushed away. I land hard on the ground as my head bangs against a rock. As I open my eyes, I see Flandre right in front of me. Her eyes, before red, are now a glowing yellow. Her look… There's something about this look that stops me from moving.

I know it, I'm going to die here, now. I close my eyes as she leans back. But instead of killing me, I hear her going away with a furious and frustrated grunt. I open my eyes and I see her running to the fog. She bounces over a boulder, then over a tree, as she says something that I cannot hear. I shakily grab the knife as I slowly stand up. I watch Flandre till she disappears. I start walking towards the village. At the second step, my knees swing just like I was drunk, and faint.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 – Girl Fighting**

* * *

It got dark as I arrived home. As I approach my house, I see the lights on. Who could it be? My Dad for sure.

I open the door and sure enough I see him sitting on a seat. I don't wanna talk to him, and I prefer to avoid him. I quickly go upstairs, but Dad calls me when I'm almost there.

"Dad…!" I say quickly. "Uh… I, uh… I need to talk to you…"

"I need to speak to you too, son" he says as standing up.

"I've decided I don't want to fight girls" I say, at the exact same time my father says "I think it's time you learn to fight girls".

"What?" we both say in confusion.

Dad takes a deep breath. "You go first".

"No no, you go first"

"Alright. You get your wish. Girl Fighting. You start in the morning".

Oh, great. Exactly what I needed. More angry girls to deal with.

"Oh man, I should've gone first. Because… you know… we have a surplus of… girl-fighting Vikings, but… don't we have enough bread-making Vikings? Or… small home repair-"

"You'll need this" he says, giving me an axe.

"I don't wanna fight girls" I tell him, kind of scared, If I say so. After my first and probably last encounter with Flandre I don't want to know anything more about these girls for a long time. I have to convince my father to not make me join the Girl Fighting arena.

Stoick laughs. "Oh come on. Yes you do!"

"Dad, rephrase: I _can't _fight girls!"

"But you _will _fight girls!"

"No, I'm really-extra-sure that I won't!"

"It's time, Hiccup. When you carry this axe, you carry all of us with you" he says as he starts correcting my posture. "That means you walk like us. You talk like us. You _think_, like us. No more of… this" he completes as he once again points at me. Do people _always _have to do that?

"You just gestured to all of me…"

"Deal?" Stoick asks.

"This conversation is feeling really one-sided-"

"Deal?" he repeats, louder, telling me that my only answer is 'deal'.

I sigh in frustration. "Deal…"

"Good. Train hard, I'll be back. Probably"

"And I'll be here. Maybe…"

_POV: Astrid_

"Welcome to Girl Fighting!" Gobber says as he opens the gate that conducts to the arena. I'm in the class with Snoutlout, Fishlegs and the twins. We all take a look to the place. It's big and round. Above the ground there's metal wires covering the hole arena. We all know some of these girls can take flight, so if it wasn't for those things Berk would be on a big trouble every single time we fight a girl. Outside the arena there are stands all over, protected by metal fences. In front of us there are various doors metal doors.

"No turning back" I say as we start walking around.

"I hope I get some serious burns!" Tuffnut says. It doesn't surprise me, he always says things like that.

"I'm hoping for some mauling, like on my shoulder or lower back" Ruffnut adds. For younger kids it might sound crazy, but I really agree with them.

"Yeah, it's only fun if you get a scar out of it" I say.

_POV: Hiccup_

Well, finally. My nightmare becomes true. I'm on Girl Training. With the teasing teens. From behind I was hearing them saying things about that they want to get hurt. I never fit on anything, so I have to follow them.

"Yeah, no kidding right?" I say. The teens turn at me. "Pain. Love it…"

"Oh great. Who let him in?" Tuffnut jeers.

"Let's get started!" Gobber yells. Apparently he stopped any other teasing from the twins. "The recruit who does his best will have the honor of fighting one of the most powerful girls in front of the entire village!"

"Hiccup already fought Flandre, so does that disqualify him or…" Snoutlout says, making the teens, even Fishlegs, laugh. "Can I transfer to the class with the cool Vikings?" Tuffnuts says as they all walk away.

Gobber walks over me and wraps his arm around me. "Don't worry. You're small and weak. That'll make you less of a target. The girls will see you as a minor problem and go after the more Viking-like teens instead" he shoves me to the line where the others are. Gobber walks in front of us, and shows us these huge, metallic and highly protected doors. "Behind these doors are just a few of the many girls you will learn to fight". He starts pointing at each of the doors, which are being slammed once and once again. The girls behind them must know we are here. I can hear some of them saying 'I'm gonna kill you all!' and others saying 'Nobody messes with me!' from behind the doors. Great…

Gobber points at the first door. "Such as Sanae,"

"Speed plus eight" Fishlegs points out, making his girl-knowledge be seen.

"Keine,"

"Plus eleven stealth times two" Fishlegs continues, more and more excited.

"Remilia,"

"Firepower remaining unknown" Fishlegs still continues, shaking.

"Suwako,"

"Attack eight, speed twelve!"

"Will you stop that?!" Gobber shouts in annoyance. Finally!

"And… Ran" he finishes, placing his hand over a lever next to the door. Please tell me he's not going to open it…

"Strength times eight" Fishlegs whispers.

"Woah wait! Aren't you going to teach us first?!" Snoutlout suddenly shouts, also noticing Gobber's insane intentions. He just smiles, not caring about our scared looks. Even Astrid is worried.

"I believe on learning on the job". Said this, Gobber pulls the lever. The door slowly opens, but, while it's still on it, a figure comes out of it. A blond girl with nine fox tails on her back. She wears a pink two-tailed hat with many amulets. She also wears a blue and white outfit.

As she comes near to us, we all start to run is different directions, almost panicking. Even though Astrid and the others can actually be out there, they never fight girls. So this is their first fight. At least it's under control, right?

"Today is all about survival!" Goober shouts. Ran is so excited to be outside that on her way she bounces over a wall. Not harmed by the hit, anyways, she proceeds to look for a foe. "If you get blasted, you're dead!" Oh gosh, that's sarcasm, - again -, right?

"Quick, what's the first thing you're going to need?" he questions us.

"A doctor?" is the first thing that pops up in my head.

"Plus-five speed?" Fishlegs suggests.

"A shield" Astrid says calmly.

"Shields! Go! If you have a choice between a sword and a shield, take the shield! Gobber shouts. I run through the arena. There are many shields. I try to pick one up, but my axe makes it more difficult. Gobber runs towards me, helps me pick up the shield, and shoves me back to the center of the arena. I see the twins fighting over a shield.

"There's like… a million shields!" Ruffnut points out in annoyance.

"Take that one, it has flowers, girls like flowers" Tuffnut jeers. Ruffnut snatches out the shield and hits her brother right on the head.

"Oops" she says without even meaning it. "Now this one has blood on it". Tuffnut gets up and continues the tug-of-war. Apparently the fuss they're making catches Ran's attention, as she moves her gaze to them and shots some kind of energy ball. How new…

The blast hits roughly the shield and sends the twins flying.

"Ruffnut, Tuffnut, you're out!" Gobber points out. Now I get the meaning of 'if you get blasted, you're dead'. Fortunately it wasn't serious.

"What?" the both say, stunned.

Gobber gives us a clue. "Shields are good for another thing; noise! Make lots of it to throw off a kitsune's aim!" So this girl is a kitsune? We rarely see those around Berk. Anyways, Astrid, Fishlegs and Snoutlout already started to bang their shields with their weapons, so I just copy them. Ran begins to look dazed.

"Each girl has a limited number of shots! How many does Ran have?" Gobber says, as we stop banging the shields.

"Five!" Snoutlout yells.

"No, six!" Fishlegs corrects, lifting up his shield.

"Good, six! That's one for each of you!" Gobber says, trying to intimidate us with this. Fishlegs nods cheerily as Gobber confirms his fact.

"I really don't think my parents would-" he starts. Right then, Ran shots another blast at his shield.

"Fishlegs, out!"

He starts running like crazy. Don't wanting to get hurt, I hide behind a wooden rack. Gobber must have seen me.

"Hiccup, get in there!"

I tried to get out, but another energy ball hits the wall, pretty near to me. Was I really coming out? Maybe when this crazy girl focuses on someone else.

_POV – Astrid_

If this girl wasn't enough of a problem, Snoutlout walks next to me.

"So, anyway…" he starts. "I'm moving to my parent's basement. You should come by sometime to work out. You look like you work out!"As he speaks, I see Ran charging at us. I get out of the way, and the energy ball blasts Snoutlout's shield, making him shut up.

"Snoutlout, you're done!"

_POV – Hiccup_

As I come out my hide place, Astrid walks up to me.

"So… I guess it's just you and me, huh?" I tell her. Her eyes suddenly widen.

"Nope, just you!" With that, she runs away. As soon as I look at front, a blast hits my shield, which goes rolling all over the arena. I try to reach for it.

"One shot left!" Gobber points out. Then, he focuses on me. "Hiccup!" he yells. I know why; the girl is right behind me, I can hear her. I almost reach out for the shield, but I'm not able to grab it on time. Just a few seconds later, I'm against the wall, and Ran in front of me.

All of a sudden, a flashback of my terrifying encounter with Flandre flashes through my head. There's only one difference in here; this girl isn't about to spare me.

Right when I see that energy ball aiming at me, a hook gets in the middle and pulls away the girl. The blast hits the wall, not even a feet away from me.

"Get this thing off me!" Ran yells as she tries to get away. Gobber advances to the door.

"Get back to bed, ya overgrown fox!" he yells as he throws the girl back to the enclosure. "You'll get another chance, don't you worry" Gobber tells us, closing the door.

"And remember. These girls will always…" he looks intimidatingly at me, telling me with his expression that I _had _to pay attention and never mess up here.

"…_always,_ go for the kill" he finishes.

* * *

"So why didn't you?" I ask myself as I pick up the bola I left on the woods. Even though the sun cannot be seen due to these common storm clouds, I still returned here, not caring if it would rain or not. I walk to the direction Flandre went, just to see if I could see her again. My way leads to a cove. It's a big and round forect-like place. There's a lake in the middle of it, and lots and lots of trees covering the whole site except for one part. As I expected, the girl's not here.

"I'm so stupid" I mutter. Before making my way back to Berk, though, something catches my attention. In one of the rocks near the cove's entrance, there are some shiny multicolored stones. I pick one up and take a good look to it.

All of a sudden, something flashes right in front of me, making me jump back. I can't believe my eyes, Flandre is still here! Apparently, she's trying to get out of the cove, but fails at it. She tries to climb up the declivitous stone walls. For my surprise, she can fly, as on her way down she soars to avoid being damaged on the fall. I jump from rock to rock to see a closer view of her. It's so… amazing. Amazing to the point that I have to get my sketchbook out.

For more surprises, Flandre can actually quiver her wings even though there are no signals that those things could give her any kind of flight. But there's something wrong with the way she flies. When she tries to, she shakes and falls roughly to the ground again. She ends up in a perfect angle for me to draw. In frustration, Flandre shots a plasma-like fireball to the ground and takes a rest before restarting her attempts to take flight.

"Why don't you just… fly away?" I ask myself again as I finish drawing. It's then when I notice that three crystals of one of her wings are missing, probably lost during her fall when I shot her down. I erase them off the sketch with my hand.

Flandre tries to fly once again. This time, the fall is tough, but she's not even damaged about it, just tired, and I can easily tell she had been the whole day trying to fly off. Exhausted, she stops and rests under the shade of the tree leaves. I look a bit closer, and then I touch something. My pencil!

I totally forgot about it. I gasp as I try effortlessly to grab it, but it falls. The pencil stumbles over a rock, thing that gets the girl's attention, and falls to the water. For my horror, Flandre looks at my direction. I lean back, but then I stop.

She's not looking at me with disdain. She looks more at me with curiosity, without showing any signals of anger. How could this be? I shot her down and I might very well be the responsible of her lost flight, yet she doesn't try to attack me.

Astonished, I slightly tilt my head, thing she mirrors.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: The Book of Girls**

* * *

_POV – Hiccup_

I'm going to the Great Hall, when I notice a storm is coming. As I enter, I see Gobber and my class there.

"Alright, where did Astrid go wrong in the ring today?" I hear Gobber saying.

"I mistimed my somersault dive" Astrid replies, "It was sloppy. It threw off my reverse stumble".

"Yeah, we noticed" Ruffnut jeers.

"No, no, you were great" Snoutlout says, still trying to get Astrid's attention. He always fails at it anyways. With my food in hand, I walk towards them. "That was so… Astrid".

"She's right, you have to be tough on yourselves" Gobber says, agreeing with Astrid.

"Where did Hiccup go wrong today?" He says when he spots me. I walk slowly past them.

"Uh, he showed up?" Ruffnut teases.

"He didn't get hurt" Tuffnut replies.

"He's _never _where he should be" Astrid says, as I sit on the other table. Snoutlout doesn't let me sit with them. It's not like I wanted, anyways.

"Thank you, Astrid. You need to live and breathe this stuff" He drops a dark red book on the table where the others are sitting on. "The Girl Manual. Everything we know about every girl we know of".

A roll of thunder is heard from the outside. Gobber listens carefully to the rain drops. "No attacks tonight. Read up" he says as he walks away.

"Wait, read?" Tuffnut says, shocked.

"While we're still alive?" Ruffnut adds in the same tone.

"Why read words about stuff when you can fight the stuff the words tell you stuff about?" Snoutlout says.

"Oh, oh, I've read it like, seven times!" Fishlegs yells with excitement. "There's this one girl that shots fireballs at your face, and there's this other one-"

"Yeah, that sounds great" Tuffnut cuts off. "There was a chance that I was going to read that…"

"But… now…?" Ruffnut completes.

"You guys read, I'll go fight stuff" Snoutlout says, making everyone but Astrid stand up and leave.

"So, I guess we'll share-" I say as I walk next to Astrid.

"Read it" she says, pushing the book towards me and standing up.

"All mine, then. Wow. So, okay, I'll see you-" Astrid slams the door. "Tomorrow…"

* * *

That night, I got to the Hall again with a candle to illuminate my way. The storm got stronger and it's incredibly dark, but still, I need some information. I let the candle on the table and open the book as I start reading it.

"Girl classifications: Strike Class, Fear Class, Mystery Class" I start reading from that page.

"Yuyuko. This reclusive ghost inhabits foggy forests or caves. When startled, Yuyuko can use her abilities to kill a man at close range. Extremely dangerous; fight on sight" I flip to the next page.

"Koakuma. This girl has razor-sharp wings that can slice through fully grown trees. Extremely dangerous; fight on sight" I flip yet another page.

"Aya. Can destroy ships by making an incredibly powerful wind. Extremely dangerous; fight on sight" When I'm about to flip another page, a loud beam followed by a white light that reflects in the open door is heard. It scares me, but I just continue.

"Cirno. Lives in forests and once she spotted you a battle is unavoidable. Extremely dangerous; fight on sight" I start flipping to random pages.

"Ran… Keine… Lunasa… Rumia… Alice… burns her foes… freezes her foes… makes her foes disappear… extremely dangerous… extremely dangerous… fight on sight… fight on sight… fight on sight…" Finally, I spot the page I was looking for. But it's blank, and there's only a name and a brief description.

"Flandre Scarlet. Age: unknown, speed: unknown. The unholy offspring of lighting and Death itself._ Never_ challenge this girl. Your only hope; hide and pray she doesn't find you"

I pull out my sketchbook, search for the page of Flandre's drawing, and drop it on the book.

* * *

_POV – Stoick_

A whole day passed. Still no signals of that cursed mansion. But I won't give up. "I can almost feel them, they're close" I mutter. We are in a part of the island where there's nothing more than storm clouds and water. The ships stop in front of a fog bank. "Take us in" I order. I know the mansion is right past this endless fog.

"Hard to port!" the rudder man informs the ships behind us. We start to advance.

"To Helheim's Gate…" someone whispers from behind me. As soon as the ships enter the bank, the visibility disappears. Everything turns light grey in color, I can't even see the sea beneath us. Everything is quiet now; only the soft but creaky sound of the ships swinging peacefully in the water is heard. Seconds later, though, a magic-like explosion bangs right in front of us. We're under attack. The light it produces lets a shadow be seen. I can easily tell our attacker is Patchouli.

* * *

_POV – Hiccup_

"So… I just happened to notice the book had nothing about Flandre" I tell to Gobber the next day on the arena. Today it's set up like a maze, with wooden walls all over. Gobber is outside the place, on the metal wires that covered it from above. "Is there another book? Or a sequel? Maybe a pamphlet-" right then a blast throws my axe off my hands. We're fighting Sanae this time. She wears a blue and white outfit with light blue polka dots and stripes covering the blue areas. She has long, green hair and yellow eyes. Her hair is tied up on a long ponytail by a light blue snake-shaped hair accessory, and above it, a hair clip shaped like a frog's head. "Today is all about _attack_!" Gobber tells us. "Sanae is quick and light on her feet. Your job is to be quicker and lighter!"

_POV – Fishlegs_

I walk slowly in an adjoining passage. As I walk by, I feel something behind me. I look up, and Sanae is behind me, walking over the walls. She throws these characteristic super-sharp cards at me. Some of them hit the wall as I run away to dodge them. Still, some others hit my shield. "I'm really beginning to question your teaching methods!" I say to Gobber as I pull out the cards by slamming the shield against the walls.

_POV – Ruffnut_

"A good method is to be quiet. If you are fighting a girl and she did not notice you, you have a perfect opportunity to strike! This is called a hide spot!" I hear Gobber instruct. But I don't even hear him, I'm too busy searching for that girl with my brother. Right then, we see her in front of us. She seems to be unaware that we are here. Then, something smells bad.

"Do you ever bathe?" I ask my dirty brother.

"If you don't like it, find your own hide spot!" he argues back. I hate when he does that.

"How about I give you one?" I start shoving him.

_POV – Hiccup_

I hear someone arguing where Sanae is. Ruffnut and Tuffnut, how not. Sanae, hearing the hubbub, looks behind to find the two bickering twins. She's now got a mad look on her face, I can notice, and it causes the brothers to run away. "Hide spot? Yes. Deaf spot? Not so much" Gobber says.

I walk back to him. "So, how would one sneak up on Flandre?" I ask.

"No one's ever seen her and lived to tell the tale, now get in there!"

"I know, but hypothetically-"

"Hiccup!" Astrid whispers from behind me. "Get down!"

I see Sanae hopping down the wall. Astrid and Snoutlout roll past her. I try to follow them, but the shield drags me back and the girl notices me. I run away before she can attack.

_POV - Astrid_

I have that girl in front of me now. I'm ready to attack when Snoutlout interferes.

"Don't worry, babe, I got this" he says, shoving me behind him and throwing his hammer at the girl. He misses awkwardly, as the hammer hits a wall various feet away from Sanae. She chuckles at his clumsiness.

"The sun was in my eyes Astrid! What do you want me to do? Block the sun? I could do that, I just don't have time right now!" he exclaims.

Then, I see Sanae charging at me.

_POV – Hiccup_

"She probably takes the daytime off" I say to Gobber once more, trying to get answers about Flandre's behavior in case I find her again on the cove. "Has anybody ever seen her napping?"

"Hiccup!" he yells, noticing that the walls are falling, Sanae hoping from one to another and Astrid escaping.

"HICCUP!" she screams as she jumps off the last wall and lands on top of me.

"Oh, love in the battlefield!" I hear Tuffnut scoff.

Then, we both notice that Sanae is charging at us. Astrid tries to grab her axe, which got stuck in my shield. I try to help her, but in an instant she rips off the shield from my hands and throws it to the girl. Dazed, she walks back to her enclosure.

Astrid faces me, anger and some kind of fear on her expression. "Is this some kind of a joke to you?" Then, the fear disappears, being replaced with more anger. "Our parents' war is about to become _ours_; figure out which said you're on". They all leave, and I start to think about Flandre, once again.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Forbidden friendship**

* * *

_POV – Hiccup_

Today started like any other day on Berk; with black stormy clouds on the sky. As there are clouds all over, it's actually cold out here. I got up early in the morning, and, without anyone capable to see me, I hurry to the woods, then to the cove. I've brought my shield and my knife, just in case. I hope not to use them anyways. I look around, but the cove appears to be empty. With the shield in front of me, I walk towards the entrance, when suddenly I can't advance anymore. The shield got stuck between two large boulders. I try to dislodge it, but nothing. I sigh as I crawl over it, and try to pull it out from there. Still nothing. I look with a nervous grin at the cove as I slowly walk around.

Maybe Flandre left? I don't think so; last time I got very clear she's unable to fly.

As I get deeper into the forest-like cove, I hear the sound of little stones falling on the ground. I stop, and look ever so carefully to where the sound came from. I gasp as I jump back. Flandre is over a boulder, observing each of my movements. As I turn around, she comes down the rock and gets in front of me with a menacing look on her face, her pupils shaped like slits. But she doesn't attack, just waits for me to do something. I slowly back up a little as I extend my arm.

"I- it's ok, I don't wanna hurt you" I say nervously. She looks to be calmed for a second, but then she looks down and suddenly backs up. I start breathing rapidly. I think I know the problem. I pull back my coat, revealing the knife. As I try to reach for it, I barely touch it when Flandre backs up even more in anger. I gasp again, and reach up for the blade, slowly this time. Holding it next to me, I let it fall.

Not satisfied yet, Flandre examines the weapon, and flicks her head towards the water. Getting the warn, I pick up the knife with my boot and throw it to the lake, not even knowing if this is a good thing to do or not, as now I'm defenseless. Flandre looks at the water, then back at me, as her eyes slightly widen. When I thought the reasons to be afraid of her were over, she starts advancing on me. I back up, my arm still extended.

"Ah, no no, no… I-" on my way, I trip over a tree behind me. Flandre stops just a very few feet away from me. "W- what do you want?" I ask, almost whispering. All of a sudden, her slit-like pupils turn round, and she sits in front of me. I just stay there, exhaling in fear, but in confusion at the same time. We keep staring at each other for various seconds. Without knowing what to do, my cheeks swell like I was about to chug as I put together my knees. Flandre slightly tilts her head. I must think of something to tell her that I'm not an enemy and that she could trust me, but without words. So, I just give her a smile. Suddenly, Flandre starts to get very interested on my action as she looks in curiosity at me. She blinks twice, and starts to smile as well. My gaze turns from a simple smile to a surprised look. It's then when I notice something. If there's a thing that I _really _know about girls are the species. There's many different species around Berk. Now let me see, Flandre has the ability to fly, change her pupils from round to slits depending on her mood, and, of course, these characteristic fangs that show up on her innocent smile. I've seen this in girls like Remilia or Kurumi; the only difference is that their pupils are always like slits, even though it's hard to notice as I can never get close enough. Taking in mind these characteristics, I can easily tell Flandre is also a vampire. And it's not like that's good news for me anyways. But… she's not like the others, she looks really friendly actually.

I slowly get up and get just a little bit close to her. Then, her smile disappears as her pupils turn again into slits. But instead of attacking me on any ways, she flies as she can towards the other part of the cove as I watch, amused because of her incredibly not-hostile behavior. I follow her carefully so she doesn't spot me; I just want to befriend her. She lands on the ground and sighs. When I'm close to her, though, a bird chirping on a tree branch gets her attention. As it flies away, Flandre looks at it with envy, then at me. This wasn't what I had in mind, but well, I have to take advantage of any chance I get, so I just lift up my hand, saying 'hi there' inside. Flandre rolls her eyes in annoyance and turns her back to me, now letting me clearly see the damaged wing. I take two short steps towards her, and slowly extend my arm. In less than a second, Flandre looks back at me. I quickly walk away, awkwardly trying to act like I wasn't doing anything.

_POV – Flandre_

'What an annoying human' I say to myself as I walk away.

* * *

I wake up hanging upside-down from a tree branch. It's almost nighttime already, so it's better like this. My eyes suddenly widen when I see that boy sitting on a rock with a stick on his hand. Curiosity invades me, so I walk towards him to see what he's doing.

_POV – Hiccup_

I can't still believe I've been here the whole day. I start to get worried if when I return home someone will spot me and give me a kick-up.

Aside from these thoughts, I simply start drawing random lines in the mud with a small stick. Suddenly, it occurs to me a great idea: draw Flandre. As I start the drawing, I hear footsteps right behind me. I know it's her, so I act like I didn't notice her and keep drawing. Maybe this will show her I'm not a threat.

_POV – Flandre_

It's always interesting to see what humans do. Now he's drawing me as I look at every single movement he does with that thing. Why not draw something as well? It's not like there's anything better to do.

_POV – Hiccup_

I hear Flandre walking away. At first I give it no importance, but the sound of a tree branch being ripped off awakens my curiosity. I look over my shoulder, and see Flandre dragging a branch all over the ground. Straight lines, swirls, circles… Every kind of figure. She's definitely drawing something. She stops as she looks at the ground, then at me, then back at the ground, making a dot this time. After this, she continues making random lines around me.

She drops the branch and nods at her… creation? When I look around I just see scrabbles all over. But still it's amusing how she 'imitated' me. I start walking around, taking a good look, when Flandre's pupils suddenly become slits again and grunts. It's that kind of grunt when someone annoys you and your anger starts growing. I almost jump, and look down, seeing that I stepped on one of the lines of her 'drawing'. I lift my foot up, and Flandre stops her sudden anger to a smile, and making her pupils round again. Just to make sure that's the reason of why she got angry, I step again on the same line. Sure enough, she changes to the same expression. I lift up my foot and she turns happy again. Not knowing why, I step on it again, but immediately stop, knowing that annoy Flandre that much could drive me into a problem. This time, I step over the line, and smile at her.

I start walking through the drawing, only looking at the ground to avoid stepping on any other lines. As I wander awkwardly, I feel someone behind me. Slowly, I turn around, seeing that Flandre is behind me, with that expectant look on her face. I get close to her a little. She keeps backing up, but not flying away. I can easily tell she's not sure about this, as her pupils are not round but they're neither slits. I finally have to show her that I trust her. And there's only one way to do that. I close my eyes and look away, as I carefully extend my hand and letting Flandre do whatever she wants with it.

_POV – Flandre_

Wait a minute… this human actually trusts me? I think so, he's letting me do the first thing that comes up to my head with his hand. My eyes widen at this. 'I could kill him right now' I say to myself, but deep inside, I feel like I shouldn't. After some seconds of thinking, I finally decide to trust him. Closing my eyes, I repeat his gesture, our palms joining together.

_POV – Hiccup_

I try to avoid looking at her as soon as I feel another palm touching mine. Carefully, I look back at Flandre. She opens her eyes and slightly backs up, looking at my hand and then at me, her pupils now round. However, this doesn't last for long, as she closes her eyes and shakes her head. When she opens them, her pupils are slits again. In a second, Flandre spreads her wings and flies away. I don't even bother looking at her, I just focus on my palm. A million questions wander through my head right now. But there's only one I want to be answered: why did she trust me?


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: See you tomorrow**

* * *

_POV - Hiccup_

"And within a second, she aimed at my hand and burned it whole!" Gobber tells us. We are on the outside, on top of one of the guard towers. All the class, including Gobber, was eating chicken. I was just roasting a fish on a stick. "And I saw the look on her face. I was an easy target back then. She must have passed the word, because it wasn't a month before another girl left me without my leg!" All the boys except me and Astrid let out amazed gasps.

"Isn't weird to think that a girl can do such damage to a person?" Fishlegs asks.

"I swear I'm so _angry _right now!" Snoutlout yells. I'll avenge your beautiful hand _and_ your beautiful foot! I'll defeat every girl I see" he promises Gobber. "With my head" he adds, now sounding like an idiot.

"Mmm, mmm, mmm, no" Gobber denies. "It's the powers and the ability to fly what you need to take under control when you fight a girl. A downed girl, is a dead girl" Suddenly, something comes across my mind like an arrow. Downed… flight… dead… Oh no. I realize that if someone gets to the cove and finds Flandre, she'll need help!

After this, Gobber stands up with a yawn. "Well, I'm off to bed. You should be too, tomorrow we get to the dangerous girls. Slowly, but surely making our way to Remilia. But, who will win the honor of fighting her?" he says, walking away.

"It's gonna be me!" Tuffnut says. "It's my destiny, see?" he shows something to the class, but I don't see it as I quietly walk towards the stall.

_POV – Astrid_

Low footsteps are heard, thing that drives me out of my thoughts for tomorrow's strategy on the arena. I look around, and see Hiccup running down the stairs. As weird as he is, though, I don't pay any attention to it.

* * *

_POV – Hiccup_

Without awakening any suspicions, I get to the stall. I walk over the desk and pull out the drawing of Flandre, this time adding the three missing crystals.

With no time to loose, I start working. I begin making small but strong iron rods, disassembling the metal parts of a shield, picking up some glass particles and yellow paint from a toolbox, adjoining the materials, creating iron attachments, modeling the glass…

* * *

It's morning already. Even though I couldn't sleep this night, I'm way too anxious to test my new invention that I don't care about it. I hurry to the cove. Flandre is sleeping under the shade of a tree, even though there are clouds _once again_. But not just sleeping, sleeping while standing up. Taking advantage of this, I _slowly_ walk towards her damaged wing.

"That's it, that's it… You don't mind me… I'll just be back here, doing my own business…" I whisper. When I'm close enough to the wing, I pick up from my pocket what I've been working last night; three prosthetic crystals. I made them yellow as I couldn't remember the actual colors, but I think it doesn't make such great difference, right? Taking a good look to them, I can notice they're not shaped like the original ones, but well, I did what I could.

Carefully, I engage the first one to the wing. Then the other. Then the last one. They actually fit well.

_POV – Flandre_

Something gets me awaken. What could it be? When I get totally awakened, I feel something… new. Just to make sure, I make a movement test with my good wing, and…

"No way…" I say as my eyes widen.

Somehow, my lost crystals are back. Slowly, I spread my wings.

_POV – Hiccup_

I turn around, and write this on a notebook I brought with me. All of a sudden, I feel being lifted up from the ground, screaming as I hold myself to Flandre's leg. I must've accidentally awakened her, and she must've noticed my action.

"Woah! No no no no!" I scream as I hold to her leg to avoid a rough fall. I look to the new crystals, which are moving from left to right uselessly. Flandre stops in mid air for a brief second, and then she starts falling. I manage to reach up for the prosthetic crystals and make them get a better hold to the wing. It works, as Flandre gains altitude just before smashing on the ground.

"Oh my- it's working!" I yell triumphantly. Still lacking enough support, the three crystals change direction towards the cove, making we both return there. Flandre starts soaring above the water.

"Yes, yes I did it!" I say as I take a good look to my invention. Flandre looks at behind.

"Hey, get off me!" she shouts, doing a tight turn that sends me off her leg. I fall so hard to the water that I even bounce like a stone.

_POV – Flandre_

Suddenly I feel like the crystals are not there anymore. I look behind and see… yellow crystals? Why are they that color? And why are they flapping uselessly like that?

When I look at front, I see the lake right before me, and fall directly to the water. From the other side of the lake, I see that boy again.

"Yeah!" he yells happily, like he just did something to be proud of.

* * *

_POV - Hiccup_

"Today is about teamwork!" Gobber shouts as a door opens, spreading grey fog all over the arena. "Work together and you might survive" he tells us as he backs up. Around us there's only fog and we can barely see each other, how are we supposed to work together? "Keine is _extra _tricky. One wrong choice, and you'll manage to get her angry"

So this time it's Keine, huh? I'm prepared. After my test with Flandre, she told me some secrets about the girls we fight in the arena after I explained to her that I could make her fly again. And Keine's secret is that she's afraid of eels, so I brought one just in case.

"But now if she's wet she can't use her abilities. Choose correctly" Gobber finishes.

Me and Fishlegs walk in circles with buckets full of water on our hands.

"Razor-sharp, serrated horns that grow on her head if she's in hakutaku form. Prefers ambush attack, when her enemies-" he starts, thing that's actually scaring me.

"Could you please stop that?" I snap tensely. From an unknown part of the ring, I hear Snoutlout's voice.

_POV – Snoutlout_

This stupid fog made me and Tuff lose sight of the others. "If that girl shows her face" I say, "I'm gonna- there!" As soon as I see a horned figure, me and Tuff throw the water off our buckets to it. I hear a girl scream, but it sounds like Astrid's.

"It's us, idiots!" Ruff says annoyed.

"Hey, we thought you were that girl!" Tuff argues.

"Not that there's anything wrong… with such figure-" Suddenly Astrid punches me on the face, and Ruffnut's sister throws him her bucket. Then, he's pulled into the fog as he screams like a crybaby.

"Wait!" Astrid says to Tuff when she tries to follow her brother. Suddenly, both of them get tripped by something unusual.

_POV – Hiccup_

Ruffnut suddenly appears running away from the fog.

"I am hurt! I am very much hurt!" he shouts, terrified.

Right in front of me, the hakutaku form of Keine slowly appears from inside the fog bank. She has red eyes, long silver hair with green highlights, and two long and sharp horns. The left one is decorated by a red ribbon. Her dress is dark green with white short sleeves, and another red ribbon is tied to the bottom of the collar.

"Now Hiccup!" Gobber shouts. I empty the bucket, but the water falls not even a meter away from me.

"Oh, come on" I mutter.

"Hiccup!" Gobber yells, trying to warn me. But is not necessary. Keine notices the eel hidden behind my coat, and starts to back up, either terrified or disgusted.

"Back! Back!" I shout, acting like the girl was afraid of me. I keep making her back up till she's again behind the door. "Don't make me tell you again". Making sure no one notices, I grab the eel and throw it next to her. "Now think about what you've done" Said this, I close the door. When I turn around, _everyone, _even Gobber, stare at me mouth-opened. Fishlegs even lets his bucket fall. "So… are we done? Cause I have some things to… yep, see you tomorrow!" I say as I get out the arena.

* * *

In the stall, I make a stronger metal support for the new crystals so they don't go around the wing and stay on their place.

* * *

Back in the cove, I show Flandre the supports. But by knowing her, she's not going to put it easy. Flandre starts running from one side to the cove to another, laughing innocently as I try to reach for her.

* * *

The first attempt with the attachments is not really working. The prosthetic crystals don't get supported enough, and make Flandre fall each time she tries to fly.

* * *

I tie the metal wires to a strong rope from a bola. This might get them to work. During this time I discovered I can fly with Flandre on her back, as she's strong enough to lift me up like I was a simple leaf. It's better like this, as I can control the position of the crystals with the rope. It's not a permanent solution anyways, as I'm not attached to her and I fall every time she turns.

* * *

This time I attach myself to Flandre's back with ropes so I don't fall. We fly across a grassy field, but I'm not able to put the crystals in the correct position on time, and we both crash into the grass. I see Flandre rolling around it, apparently enjoying its touch.

"Do you really like that grass?" I ask.

"Both vampires and kitsunes love this grass!" she replies with a giggle.

I take a handful of it.

* * *

In the arena we are fighting against Ran again. She pushes away one of the teens, I did not notice who. She glares at me and runs towards me. Looking away, I extend the arm with the grass. Ran suddenly looks to be calmed and happy. I toss the handful of grass on her hair, and the at first aggressive girl is now a happy girl in a complete state of bliss.

* * *

I walk over the bridge that conducts to the ring, being questioned over and over again by the teens. "Oh I left my axe back in the ring" I say as an excuse as I turn around, pretending to go to the arena. I pass right in front of Astrid. "You guys go ahead; I'll catch up with you!"

* * *

I start scratching Flandre's back on the spot where I got the ropes attached. After finding a 'special' spot near her shoulder, her eyes widen and she stumbles to the ground in pure satisfaction. I look at my hand.

"Does this also work on other girls?" I ask, astonished.

"It works with Sanae also…" Flandre replies in a trance-like tone.

* * *

Back on the ring we are pit against Sanae (fortunately), but this time without the walls. Astrid tries to attack her with her axe, but Sanae reacts quickly and throws her away. Astrid charges back towards her, and I proceed to scratch that special spot when Sanae is close enough o me. She gets Flandre's same reaction, as Astrid, with her axe lifted up, stares at me, exhaling in anger.

* * *

On the Great Hall, I sit on the table I always sit on. But this time, the teens and other warriors surround me, asking me questions again. All but Astrid, who hits her fist against the table.

* * *

After a whole day being bombarded with questions, I go back to the cove. My shield reflects a white light on the ground, which Flandre chases.

* * *

"Meet Suwako" Gobber says, as he opens the door. A little girl gets to the arena. This girl wears a short, purplish-blue dress with a frog print design, large white sleeves stitched onto the torso and a white collar. She has medium length blond hair, grey eyes, and wears a light brown wide-brimmed hat with two frog eyes on the top.

Tuffnut laughs. "Ha! It's like the size of a-" All of a sudden, Suwako knocks him over with a high-pitched battle cry in anger. I use the shield trick again to draw the little girl away from Tuff.

"I am hurt! I am very much hurt!" he screams in pain.

Suwako chases the light and gets back to the enclosure.

"Wow, he's better than you ever were" Tuffnut says to Astrid while standing up.

* * *

_POV – Astrid_

I went to the woods to be alone for a time. I just keep throwing my axe to every single tree I see in pure anger. When I'm about to throw it again, I see Hiccup staring nervously at me. He's wearing an odd harness instead of his coat, and carrying some metal rods. He quickly walks away as I follow him. I peek over a rock, but he disappeared.

* * *

_POV – Hiccup_

The metal rods I brought must be more than enough to keep the crystals secure to the wing.

We both 'fly' towards a hill. I tie Flandre with a rope to a stump to practice the flight without falling. On her back again, I move the rope attached to the three crystals to try the different positions and their effects. I draw each one on a cheat sheet as Flandre lands carefully. After having it done, she spread her wings and soars again, but a sudden wind makes us both fly back and crash, as it untied the rope. Talking about ropes, the one that attached me to Flandre cannot be untied.

"Oh, great" I mutter.

* * *

At nighttime, Flandre and me sneak up around the village. She hides behind a house as a night guard passes by and greets me. I smile and wave. Right then, we both enter Gobber's stall. I hear Astrid's voice from the outside.

"Hiccup?"

I burst out the window, the rope still attached to Flandre, but I try to dissimulate it. "Astrid, hey, hi! Astrid, hi! Hi! Astrid!" I say awkwardly.

"I normally don't care what people do, but you're acting weird" she says.

Flandre pulls me back with the rope.

"Well… weirder-er…" she continues.

Then, Flandre lifts me up from the ground, then pulls me inside the window. Right before she could see us, I carefully perch over her back and fly away being unnoticed.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: Test drive**

* * *

_POV – Gobber_

Stoick finally returned. The only thing is that there's only one ship left, almost entirely destroyed and overloaded with men. Stoick comes out the ship in anger as I walk towards him.

"Well I trust that you found the mansion, at least?" I ask.

"Not even close!" he replies in a deep voice. "I hope you had a little more success than me…"

"Well if by success you mean that your parenting troubles are over with then… yes" I reply, right when the people that arrived to the docks walk past us.

"Congratulations, Stoick. Everyone is _so _relieved" a woman says.

"Out with the old and in with the new, right?" another Viking says.

"No one will miss that old nuisance!"

"The whole village is throwin' a party to celebrate!"

"…he's gone?" Stoick asks confused.

"Err… yeah, most afternoons. But who can blame him? I mean, the life of a celebrity is very rough, he can hardly walk through the village without being swarmed by his new fans" I reply.

"Hiccup?" Stoick asks again, still not believing it.

"Who woulda thought it, eh? He has his ways with 'em"

* * *

_POV – Hiccup_

After some good time of practice, Flandre and I finally left the cove, and we start to fly together above the sea. Just to make it secure for her, we started our test drive some hours before nighttime.

"Alright there, Flan" I say. "We're gonna take this nice and slow" I watch my cheat sheet, attached by a metal clip on Flandre's vest.

"Ok, here we go, here we go. Position… three- no, four!" I adjust the crystals with the rope, and the wing spreads a little more, thing that sends us into a controlled drive. I look back to see that both wings are in the correct position.

"Nice, it's go time, it's go time"

Flandre retracts the wings, and we start flying closer to the sea. She slowly spreads them again, the good one dipping in the water.

"Come on buddy, come on buddy!" I yell in excitement. We fly right under a sea stack, with many seagulls soaring around. I look back at it, smiling.

"Yes, yes it worked!"

This distraction is a problem, though. I didn't adjust the crystals on time and Flandre, out of control, hits a rock.

"Hiccup!" she shouts.

"Sorry" I apologize. None of us notice that we were getting closer to another rock. I try to stops Flandre from hitting it, but I can't. "That's my fault…"

Flandre whips me with one of the crystals of her wing.

"Ow! Yeah, yeah, I'm on it"

Adjusting the prosthetic shards, Flandre starts quivering her wings and we gain altitude.

"Yeah! Go baby!" I yell. Now we are flying beyond the clouds, the view is awesome.

"Oh this is amazing! The wind on my-" suddenly, the cheat sheet slips out of its clip because of the wind. "-CHEAT SHEET! STOP!"

Flandre stops in mid-air as I manage to get the sheet back, but the rope that attached me to her gets untied. Now without me controlling the crystals, Flandre begins to freefall, me behind her.

"Oh gosh! Oh Gods! Oh no!" I scream in fear. Flandre screams as well.

"Alright! Ok, y- you've gotta kinda- angle yourelf!" I tell Flandre, who's spinning uncontrollably.

"No, no! Come back towards me! Come back towards- yeow!" One of her wings whips me in the face when she gets closer to me, thing that actually _hurts_ by taking in mind how tough the wing skeleton is.

But finally, Flandre manages to get close enough for me to attach myself to the rope again. Now on her back again and with the cheat sheet on my mouth, I pull back with all my strength. Everything is so fast; at first the island looks so small that it appears to be the smallest thing on the sea, one second later we are flying above a forest. Flandre spreads her wings right on time and makes us soar at a still outstanding speed, almost touching the treetops. She screams in fear, louder each second. I pull out the sheet off my mouth, but the wind of the fall is way too strong and the sheet is flapping too much for me to see it. I look at front, and see that we are approaching a pile of rocks covered with fog. I throw away the sheet and let my instinct act. At the same speed we were falling, Flandre and me dodge all the rocks. I move the rope and adjust the crystals on time once and once again. I adjust them in a way I never tried before, making Flandre twist.

Finally, we exit the horrible rock maze.

"Yeah!" I shout triumphantly, not only because I managed to stay alive, but because I managed to fly with Flandre without reading the cheat sheet. In celebration, she throws a black-purple energy ball before us, which explodes on our way.

"Come on…" I say, frustrated.

* * *

With my face covered with burn marks, I just sit down and watch the sunset from a rocky beach. Meanwhile, Flandre is sleeping under a tree near me. It's then when three apparently young girls appear like from the nothing. One of them has very dark green eyes and short, blonde hair. She wears a purplish blue dress and a red headband. Next to her, there's another girl with curly blond hair and green eyes, and her skin appears to be a little green too. She wears an odd dress; the top is brown with purple borders and a pink sash, and the bottom is blue, purple and black with criss-crossed red strings hanging on the bottom edge. She also has a pink scarf tied around her neck and pinky puffy arm socks. I saw these two the second time I took a look to the Book of Girls. Their names are Alice and Parsee.

I notice Alice carries a very interesting doll with her, probably the reason of why Parsee is chasing her. They appear to be in a very angry mood, but just seconds later Alice shots some kind of beams at the other girl, making her run away. This little mess wakes up Flandre, who looks at the two girls with her eyes narrowed in an intimidating way. The third girl appears from behind some bushes near the tree Flandre was sleeping in, arriving at the point of scaring her. This girl has light blue hair and eyes. She wears a blue dress with lots of pockets around the hem of the skirt and her upper arm. She also wears a green hat and blue boots. As I remember from the book, her name is Nitori.

But, despite the fact that sudden apparition was just a simple joke, Flandre is still looking madly at her. Nitori replies with another mad look. Flandre grins when the little girl puts herself on a defensive posture, looking like she's ready to attack. And she is; water bubbles start appearing in front of her. Apparently disinterested by this, Flandre just shots a blue spark at Nitori's feet, making her loose balance and fall while the bubbles disappear. Dazed, she stands up and shakily walks around.

"Looks like you're not so fireproof, are ya?" I say to her with a soft voice. Well, it should be obvious. I don't think that a girl affiliated to water can fight very well against fire-like powers. "Oh, come on, don't be sad, it could happen to anyone" I try to encourage her. Nitori walks next to me, apparently relieved by my 'advice', and with a smile, she sits next to me, also watching the last minutes of the sunset.

"All we knew about all of you… is wrong!" I realize out loud.

* * *

I fiddle with my pencil back on the stall, bored, without knowing what to do. All of a sudden, the door smashes against the wall when Stoick opens it.

"Dad!" I yell in surprise for such sudden entrance. "You're back!" nervously but dissimulating, I try to hide all the papers and drawings. "Gobber's not here, so…"

"I know. I came looking for you" he says severely.

"Y- you did?"

"You've been keeping secrets…" Oh no. This isn't good. Has he secretly discovered Flandre?

"I, I- I have-?"

"How long did you think you could hide it from me?"

"I- I don't know-"

"_Nothing _happens on this island without me hearing about it"

"Oh?"

"So… Let's talk, about that girl"

I'm about to faint. He knows it. He discovered it. Oh man, how am I going to explain him that I befriended a girl? And Flandre at that!

"Oh, Gods. Dad, I'm so sorry! I was going to tell you I just didn't know how to-" suddenly, Stoick's laugh interrupts me. Why is he laughing? Is it funny for him that I became friends with the enemy or something?

"You- you're not upset?"

"What? I was hoping for this!" he says without stopping his laughter. Ok, now _this _was strange. Or… maybe he doesn't actually know what I think he knows…

"Uh… you were?"

"And believe me! It only gets better! Just wait until you get involved in a real fight! What a feeling, you really had me going there, son!" he smacks me on the shoulder, which such force that it sends me against the wall. He's talking about my 'success' on the Girl Fighting arena, fortunately.

"All those years of the worst Viking Berk has ever seen" Odin, it was rough. I almost gave up on you! And all the while you were holding it on me, oh Thor almighty!" He sits down in a stool. "With you doing so well in the ring, we finally have something to talk about"

I just stand there, not knowing what to say. Dad pulls the stool closer to me. I'm about to tell him the truth, but I better keep it for myself. Telling Dad about Flandre is not going to work, he'll be angry, he'll say that girls are the enemy and everything will end very wrong, not to say that if I tell my secret to Stoick, Flandre will see me as a traitor and she'll probably try to kill me. I don't want that to happen.

"Oh…" Dad says disappointed of my silence. "I- I brought you something. To keep you safe in the ring" he picks up a horned helmet and hands it to me.

"Wow… thanks" is the only thing I'm able to say as I touch the cold metal of the helmet.

"Your mother would have wanted you to have it" Dad says calmly. "It's half of her breastplate" he adds, as I take my hand off it. "Matching set" Stoick says, signaling his helmet. "Keeps her close, you know? Wear it proudly. You deserve it. You've held up your end of the deal" he concludes.

After all this entire situation, I need to think of an excuse. I fake a yawn.

"I should really go to bed"

"Err, yes. Good! Okay! Good talk!" Dad starts awkwardly. "See you back at the house"

"Thanks for stopping by- And for the… uh…. breast hat"

"The hat, well-" while walking backwards, Stoick's helmet hits the wooden ceiling. "Err, good night" he squeezes through the door, leaving me alone with my thoughts. Right now, I'm really worried about the Girl Fighting arena. What if I win? It will only get me in trouble.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Romantic flight**

* * *

Today, the exam to determine who will fight against Remilia was between me and Astrid. Our opponent is Ran once again. The entire village is watching us. This time, the arena is covered by wooden barriers. Astrid rolls behind the one I'm hiding on.

"Stay out of my way! I'm winning this thing" she says with a mad glare. She runs towards another barrier, closer to the girl, who's looking for us. I peek over the barrier, and see Stoick observing me. I just fake a smile. Now, I have two options; one, let Astrid kill Ran and then let her fight against Flandre's _sister_. Yes, exactly. At the cove, I told Flandre about the last fight, and she told me Remilia is her sister. That's where the second option comes out; use that grass to calm down Ran, then win the honor of fighting Remilia, and finally show the whole village that we don't have to fight girls. The perfect plan. The only thing is that now I'll have to make it work.

_POV – Astrid_

I roll behind the closest barrier to the girl. "This time, this time for sure!" I say to myself. I leap over the barrier with a battle cry, my axe lifted up. Then, I stop abruptly when I see Ran out cold with Hiccup next to her. No… this can't- Blinded my anger, my arms swing the axe all over. "No! Son of a half-troll- rat eating- munch bucket!-"

_POV – Hiccup_

Suddenly, I change my plan. Just out of fear, not only because of Astrid, but because it came to my mind that I didn't think about what would be Stoick's reaction. "So… later-" as I'm about to leave, Gobber yanks me back with his hook and drags me back to my spot, next to Astrid.

"Not so fast"

"I'm kinda late for-"

"_What_? Late for _what_, exactly?" Astrid shouts in anger.

"Alright, quiet down!" Gobber says. "The elder has decided"

Gobber points with his hook at Astrid. For everyone's surprise and for my sudden horror, the elder shakes her head in denial. Gobber points at me with the good hand. The elder signals at me, smiling and nodding.

I hear Astrid's breathing becoming louder. Before I can say a word, though, the village yells in excitement. "You've done it! You get to fight Remilia!" Gobber shouts. Fishlegs hoists me up, along with the other teens following me.

"That's my boy!" I hear Stoick shout.

"Oh, yeah, yes. I am so-"

* * *

"Leaving" I tell Flandre even if I don't know in which part of the cove she is. "Let's pack up! Looks like you and me are taking a little vacation. Forever"

A sharp noise awakens my curiosity. When I look up, I see Astrid sharpening her axe with a small rock, sitting on a boulder right in front of me. Shocked, I back up.

"What the- Uh, what are you doing here…?"

"I want to know what's going on" Astrid says calmly, lifting up the stone and looking at it. Then, she throws it off and comes down the rock.

"No one just gets as good as you do. _Specially _you. Start talking!" I try to explain something to her, but I just mumble things. "Are you training with someone?"

"Um, training…?"

"It better not involve _this_" she says as she grabs my harness and slightly lifts it up.

"I know, this looks _really_ bad, but you see. This is, um…" A tree breaking in the distance cuts me off and makes Astrid start to advance deeper in the cove. I have to think of something. Now.

"You're right! You're right! I'm through the lies. I've been making… outfits!" I grab her arm and put it in the harness. "So… you got me. Drag me back, it's time everyone knew-" Astrid twists my arm around, pushing me to the ground. "Why would you _do _that?" I say.

"That's for the lies. And this…" she lets the butt of her axe fall on my belly. "…for everything else" suddenly, another sound, louder than the other one, scares Astrid.

"Oh, man…" I mutter. Flandre, who's on the other side of the cove, spotted Astrid.

"Get down!" Astrid screams. "Run! Run!" she lifts up her axe when Flandre comes out from behind a rock.

"No!" I shout, pushing Astrid out of the way before Flandre could reach out for her. I turn around.

"No, it's ok, it's ok. She's a friend" this momentarily calms down Flandre. "You just scared her" I explain to Astrid.

"I scared _her?" _Then,she suddenly stops. "Who… is _her?"_

"Astrid, Flandre. Flandre… Astrid"

Flandre gives a grunt to Astrid, showing her fangs. Astrid shakes her head, and runs towards the village.

"Dat-da-dah, we're dead" I groan. I hear Flandre going away. "Woah woah woah woah, where do you think you're going?"

* * *

_POV – Astrid_

I hurry through the woods. I can't believe what Hiccup just did. He's gonna have a good one, because I'm going to tell the whole village about this. I jump off a big log, when I feel myself being lifted up from the ground.

"Oh great Odin's ghost. Oh this is it" Said this, I just scream like I never did before. Hiccup and that _girl _fly towards a tall tree, on which I am dropped. Hiccup and his 'friend' land on the top, making the tree bend.

"Hiccup!" I shout. "Get me _down_ from here!"

"You have to give me a chance to explain!"

"I am not listening to _anything _you have to say!"

"Then I won't speak! Just let me show you… Please, Astrid"

I just want to get down from this tree. I'm not going to let Hiccup keep that girl as a secret to everyone. I pull myself up to the branch and walk closer to Hiccup. The girl doesn't seem to have the same idea.

"Don't touch me" she hisses, making me slightly back up.

"Now get me down" I say, looking at the far ground.

"Flandre, down. _Gently" _Hiccup says. Flandre spreads her wings, whose catch a soft wind and her crystal-like things swing along with it. I grab the rope that attaches Hiccup to the girl. "See? Nothing to be afraid of" he assures me.

_POV – Flandre_

'Nothing to be afraid of'? Good one Hiccup. A smirk grows in my face. Using the tree as a springboard, I shot myself up to the sky as fast as I can. Maybe Hiccup is attached to me, but that Astrid is not, thing that makes this so much funnier. I hear her scream in panic. "Flandre, what is wrong with you?" Hiccup yells at me.

I stop my sudden and dangerous flight. "She's not… heh, usually like this" Hiccup assures Astrid, who's holding to the rope next to me. Sure… I retract my good wing, making us fall upside-down. I smash to the water. Then once again. At the third time Hiccup tries to stop me. "Flandre what are you doing we need her to like us!" he says, trying to convince me. But I won't stop; not till Astrid says sorry for what she did to him.

I shoot up to the sky again. When we are beyond the clouds, I start spinning around.

"And now the spinning" Hiccup says frustrated as Astrid continues to scream. "Thanks for nothing, you useless vampire"

After this, I give up on flying and start to free-fall. Then…

"Ok, I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Just get me off of this thing!" Astrid cries. Despite the fact she called me a 'thing', she said sorry, and that's all I wanted to hear. Seconds before reaching the sea, I immediately spread up my wings, making us soar peacefully.

_POV – Astrid_

I don't dare to open my eyes for such sudden stop. But a soft wind in my face makes me, and what I see is just beautiful. We are now flying under the pink colored clouds. Flandre flies closer to them. In curiosity, I touch them with my hand while the other holds me to the rope. I always imagined the clouds to be warm and silky. Instead, they're cold and wet, like if they were made of rain drops.

We keep flying, now having clouds all around us. It feels so magical, it's something no Viking ever experienced. And it's all thanks to… Hiccup.

Flandre begins to slowly fly through the clouds, revealing a darker sky. It's then when I see something I've never seen before; colorful rainbow-alike lights dancing in the sky, mostly green and blue. Both me and Hiccup stare in awe at it. Even as I'm hanging with one hand to a rope, it's still astonishing and beautiful. I had no idea these girls could be befriended and that they could do these things for you. Surfacing from the clouds, I see a whole view of Berk at night. I open my mouth in surprise. From this point, Berk looks so beautiful. Instead of a lot of houses, it looks like a big rock covered with lots of lights. Flandre looks at me and smiles.

_POV – Hiccup_

I feel so relieved right now. I thought this was going to be a disaster, but… This was so much better than what I had planned to do at first. Which was just take off Astrid from the tree.

"Alright, I admit it. This is pretty cool. It's… amazing. She's amazing" Astrid says.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: The kill ring**

* * *

_POV - Hiccup_

"So what now?" Astrid asks as we fly peacefully through the night sky. I give her no reply. "Hiccup, your final exam is _tomorrow_! You know you'll have to kill a-" taking in mind that Flandre could hear her, she lowers her tone. "-kill a girl" she whispers.

"Don't remind me…" I say. Suddenly, Flandre flies straight towards the fog that's below us. "Flandre, what's happening?"

"Quiet!" she says. I can notice her worried tone. Something's wrong.

"What's going on?" Astrid asks in fear.

"I don't know. Flandre, you have to get us out of here" I tell Flandre while putting my hand on her shoulder.

"Don't touch me" she snaps exasperatedly, shoving off my hand. Definitely something wrong is going on. She doesn't usually act like this.

Flandre banks lower into the fog. Astrid is unable to hold her fear, and lets out a brief scream. We continue flying, dodging various rocks. Like that time on our first drive out of the cove, just slower. We fly out of the fog, and see a scarlet colored mansion in the middle of almost nowhere, surrounded by a lava river. Flandre enters it by diving into a big hole on the left side of the mansion.

The inside is completely destroyed, and in the middle of it, an enormous trench is seen. From the far inside of it, a red-orange light rises among the insides of the room. It's either lava or fire. It illuminates the whole mansion, making its scarlet color look like a _strong_ fire-like red. Flandre soars above it, looking at all directions nervously. This is without any doubt what my father has been looking for; the Scarlet Devil Mansion. "What my Dad wouldn't give to find this…" I mutter.

We land on a small part of ground that's still there. From the other side, I can see four other girls, all staring at the hole. One of the girls I saw on the book, Koakuma, flies above it, like looking for something. She looks very tired and flies in an awkward way, like she's not able to hold herself in the air.

In an instant, a brief earthquake shakes the mansion, and Koakuma's eyes open wide at it. She looks down, and-

A gigantic green dragon's head surfaces from the trench, mouth opened, almost eating the girl, if it wasn't for that she flies away right on time. The thing has glowing red eyes and yellow horns. A purple-haired girl hides behind a wooden shelf. The other two, one with red hair and a green dress and another dressed like a maid, hug each other in fear.

"What… is that?" Astrid asks, shocked. As shocked as me, but not as scared as Flandre. Before the dragon returns to its hole, it starts sniffing the air.

"Alright, Flan, we've gotta get out of here" I tell Flandre, Astrid grabbing again the rope. "Now!"

Right before the dragon could reach up for us, Flandre shots to the sky, straightly directed towards the 'entrance'.

* * *

"No, no! It totally makes sense!" Astrid points out as we go back to the cove. "These girls are the workers and that's their king! It controls them! Let's find your dad!" Before she could get out of the cove, I stop her.

"No, no! Not yet. They'll… kill Flandre, Astrid. We'll have to think of this carefully"

"Hiccup, we just found the Scarlet Devil Mansion! The thing that we've been looking for since Vikings first sailed here! And you want to keep it as a secret? To protect your friend, are you serious?"

I stare at her.

"…yes" I mutter, turning around.

"Oh… O- ok… So what are you going to do?"

"Just… give me until tomorrow. I'll think of something…"

Then silence. Neither Flandre nor Astrid say a word. Suddenly, Astrid punches me on the shoulder. "That's for kidnapping me" she says.

I look back at Flandre. She looks disinterested at this, and ignores me.

Then, Astrid kisses me on the cheek. "And that's for… everything else" she says softly as she turns around towards the village. I stare at her. When she looks at me, Astrid runs off.

I keep staring at her until she's gone. Flandre walks next to me, glaring at me with her 'puppy eyes'.

"W- w- what are you looking at?" I say.

* * *

_POV – Stoick_

It's nighttime. Everyone is reunited in the Girl Fighting arena, all of them yelling in excitement.

"Well, I can show my face in public again!" I joke, making everyone laugh. "If someone told me that in a short few weeks Hiccup would go from being… well, Hiccup, to placing first in Girl Fighting… I would've tied him to a mast and shipped him off, for fear he'd gone mad!" The village goes in turmoil.

I silence them with a gesture of my hand. "But here we are, and no one's more surprised…"

_POV - Hiccup_

"…or more proud, than I am" Stoick concludes. I just stand nervously at the entrance.

"Be careful with that girl" Astrid says from behind me.

"It's not the girl what I'm worried about" I say as I look up to where Dad is sitting.

"What are you going to do?"

"Put an end to this. I have to try" I tell Astrid. "Astrid, if something… goes wrong… just make sure they don't find Flandre"

"I will. Just… promise me it won't go wrong"

As soon as I'm about to reply, Gobber calls for me. "It's time Hiccup. Knock 'em dead"

Slowly, I walk towards the entrance, putting my helmet on. The gate closes behind me. The whole village is yelling in excitement. Nervously, I walk to the weapon rack, and grab a shield and a small knife.

"I would've picked the hammer" I hear Stoick say.

I give a long sigh. "I'm ready…"

The small, wooden pole that locks the door slowly lifts up. In less than a second, the door literally explodes, revealing a _very _angry Remilia. She has red eyes, short light blue hair and a pair of bat-like wings on her back. They're black seen from behind and pink seen from the front. She wears a pink mob-cap, similar to Flandre's, and a dress with bright red trimming. Her whole body is surrounded by a dark aura, noticeably because of her rage.

She starts to fly around, and shots a blue beam at a group of Vikings, who lean out of the way. Then, she notices me. Remilia lands only a few meters away from me, and I begin to back up. I drop my shield, then my knife. I hear the crowd whispering things.

"What is he doing?" Stoick says.

Remilia continues to advance on me. I slowly extend my arm, hoping for this to be like when I befriended Flandre. "It's ok, it's ok" I say, trying to calm her down. I stop backing up and put off my helmet. I hold it in front of me for some seconds. "I'm not one of them" I mutter, throwing away the helmet. The people gasp at this. Remilia looks at the helmet, then at me. This is what I wanted to happen; her pupils become round.

"Stop the fight" Stoick says.

"No!" I reply. "I want you all to see this" I extend my arm again. Remilia examines it, but not in a hostile way. Not anymore. "They're not what we think they are. We don't have to fight them"

"_I said stop the fight!" _Stoick shouts, banging his hammer against the metal bars. Startled, Remilia's pupils become fine slits again. She snaps at my hand, but in pure fear I run away. She shoots another blue beam at me.

* * *

_POV – Flandre_

From far away, I hear Hiccup screaming. Something went wrong with my sister.

* * *

_POV – Astrid_

"Hiccup!" I shout. I pick up an axe from the wall, push it under the gate and lift it up. I slide under the small aperture and hurry to help Hiccup.

* * *

_POV – Flandre_

I desperately try to get out of the cove. At first I didn't have a clear reason to, now I do have one. Blinded by the sudden urge to help Hiccup, I manage to reach out for the entrance.

* * *

_POV – Hiccup_

I dodge all Remilia's attacks and head towards the weapon rack. Before I could grab something, Remilia smashes right through it.

* * *

_POV – Flandre_

I run as fast as I can through the woods, using all my strength to fly up. Hiccup is _all_ I care about, and I won't let him die.

* * *

_POV – Astrid_

I grab a hammer from the destroyed stack and throw it at Remilia. This drives her attention to me. Stoick lifts up the gate.

"This way!" he shouts. I manage to get in, and wait for Hiccup. But then, Remilia blocks his way by blasting the entrance and making him run in the opposite direction.

_POV – Hiccup_

Another blast makes me loose balance, and I fall on my back. Remilia stares coldly at me. A very familiar gaze…

Before she could do anything, though, an explosion hits the bars, burning them.

_POV – Gobber_

Something just went right through the bars of the arena, but there's too many smoke for me to see anything. When it clears out is when I get surprised.

"Flandre Scarlet!" is the first thing that comes out of my mouth when I see the responsible of that.

_POV – Hiccup_

How did Flandre get in here? No, what I care about is not that. It's just incredible that she's _fighting _her _sister _only to protect me. Like in my first encounter with her, her eyes are a glowing yellow. Remilia tries to reach out for me, but Flandre blocks her way.

"Stay away from him!" she shouts. Remilia backs up, and returns to the enclosure, clearly terrified. Flandre becomes 'normal' again when I walk over her.

"Ok, Flandre, now go!" I say, pushing her to try and make her leave. The warriors start running towards her. "Go! Go!" I beg.

Stoick grabs an axe and charges at Flandre. For my horror, her pupils become slits. She effortlessly beats all the warriors that get too close to her, and makes her way towards Stoick.

"Flandre, stop!" She doesn't listen to me. With a red fireball, Flandre knocks down Stoick.

"NO!" I cry out. Flandre hears me this time, and stops her attack. She looks at me, with confusion and sadness on her eyes. Within a second, a bola hits Flandre, and the warriors hold her wings down. I try to reach out for her, but Astrid stops me.

"No! Please, just don't hurt her!" I beg. "Don't hurt her…" I repeat in the lowest tone I've ever spoken.

A man handles Stoick an axe, but he refuses it. "Put her with the others" he orders.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: Ready the ships**

* * *

_POV – Hiccup_

Dad shoves me inside the Great Hall, full of anger. "I should have known. I should have seen the signs" he mutters.

"Dad-"

"We had a deal!" he shouts.

"I know we did- but that was before- oh, it's all so messed up!" I say rubbing my hair, too nervous and scared to speak with clarity. I have _way_ too many things to tell, it's impossible for me to explain. Dad won't believe me, no matter what I say. But I have to try.

"So everything on the ring. A trick? _A lie"_

"I screwed up.I should've told you before now. Take this out on me. Be mad at me. But please… Just don't hurt Flandre" I beg, trying my best to make my Dad change his ideas.

"The girl? That's what you're worried about? Not the people you almost killed?" he yells.

"She was just protecting me! She's not dangerous!"

"They've killed hundreds of us!"

"And we've disturbed and changed _all _of them!" This makes Stoick think for a moment. "They defend themselves, that's all. They raid us because they have to! They're just following orders! There's… something else on their island-"

"Their island? So you've been to the mansion…"

"Did I say mansion?-"

"_How_ did you find it?"

"I- I didn't! Flandre did. Only a girl that lives there can find the island!" Then, that expression shows up on his face. That expression when he has a dangerous idea that means go against my wishes. And I know exactly what it is.

"Oh, no. Dad, no" Dad ignores me, pushing me aside and walking towards the door. "Dad, it's not what you think! You don't know what you're up against, Dad please! I promise that you can't win this one! No! Dad, no!" I run towards him and grab his arm desperately. "_For once in your life_ _could you please just listen to me?" _he throws me off his hand, sending me to the ground, and slowly turns to me.

"You've thrown your lot with them. You're not a Viking" he says in a low tone. Then… "You're not my son"

My breathing is about to stop. He didn't just… _disown_ me-

_POV – Stoick_

"Ready the ships!" I shout, slamming the door. Just then, I almost faint for the severity of what I just done. I lose balance for a moment, then walk towards the docks.

* * *

_POV – Overview of the docks_

All the ships are prepared at the docks. The whole village is waiting for their departure. All the ships begin to be loaded with various weapons and men. The last thing that's loaded in is Flandre, chained to a wooden block and hold down by metal bars covering her midsection, arms and legs, and her wings chained into two short poles. Maybe in sadness or in fear, the elder pulls the two children that are looking at the scene closer to her.

From afar, Hiccup watches everything with the most horrible sadness and guiltiness he ever felt.

"Set sail! We head for Helheim's Gate" Stoick orders.

His gaze comes across his heart-broken son. But even if he's still feeling bad for what he did, he just turns around and walks by the side of Flandre.

"Lead us home, devil" he mutters. Flandre looks with fury at him for some seconds, before sadness returns to her, making her lower her head.

_POV – Hiccup_

I just watch the ships till they are no longer seen. Everything I wanted is lost, and it's my fault. All my fault.

"It's a mess…" I hear Astrid say. Words don't reach my mouth, I'm not able to reply. "You must feel horrible. You've lost everything: your father, your tribe, your best friend-"

"Thank you, for summing that up" I say, starting to get bothered by Astrid. "Why couldn't I have killed that girl when I found her in the woods…" I say, ashamed. Not only by what I said hurt me deep inside, but because it's true, even though I don't want to believe it. "It could've been better, for everyone…"

"Yep, the rest of us would have done it. So why didn't you?" I give her no reply. "Whydidn't you?" she repeats, more concerned about it this time.

"I don't know… I couldn't"

"That's not an answer…"

"Why is this so important to you all of a sudden?" I ask, slightly angered.

"Because I want to remember what you say, right now"

"Oh for the love of- I was a coward! I was weak! I couldn't kill one of those girls!"

"You said wouldn't that time"

"Whatever!" I snap in a sudden rage. "I wouldn't! Three hundred years and I'm the first Viking who couldn't kill or fight one of those girls!" I say as I turn around.

"First to befriend one, though" Astrid says. It's true. I did what no Viking ever did, and discovered things no Viking ever discovered, thanks to that. "So…" she continues, waiting for my answer.

"I wouldn't kill her… Because she looked as frightened as I was. I looked at her, and I saw myself…"

"I'll bet she's really frightened now… So what are you going to do?" A plan comes to my mind. Not exactly plan, but an idea.

"I don't know. Probably something stupid"

"Good, but you already did that" That's when the real plan comes up.

"Then, something crazy!" I say, starting to run towards the arena.

"That's more like it" Astrid says as she begins to follow me.

* * *

_POV – Stoick_

We are once again on the fog bank. But this time, we are so many more and we have a guide. I watch at front, trying to spot any signals of the island. Gobber walks next to me.

"Listen, Stoick… I was overhearing some of the men just now and, well, some of them, are wondering what it is we're up to here, n- not me, of course… I know you always the man with the plan, but some- not me, are wondering if there's in fact a plan at all, and, what it might be?"

"Find the mansion and take in"

"Oh, of course. Send them running. The old Viking fallback. Nice and simple-" I hush Gobber when I notice Flandre is… sensing something. We must be close. I move towards the stern, pushing aside the men. "Step aside"

I hold the tiller, watching the girl. She moves her head to one direction. Then to another direction. Like she's being forced to lead us to the mansion.

* * *

_POV – Hiccup_

I stare nervously at Remilia's enclosure. It's morning already, but there are these storm clouds again, so my plan might still work.

"If you're planning on getting killed, I'll definitely go with Ran" says a voice behind me. I turn around, and see Fishlegs, Astrid, Snoutlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut.

"You were wise to seek help from the world's- deadliest- weapon" Tuffnut says, getting closer to me.

"Uh…"

"It's me-" Before he can continue, Snoutlout pushes him away.

"I, _love _this plan_!"_

"I didn't…" Again, Ruffnut pushes him away.

"You're crazy!" She leans closer to me. "I like that…" she adds in a lower tone. Astrid grabs her horned helmet and gets her out of the way.

"So? What's the plan?"

I just smile. This is definitely going to work.

* * *

_POV – Stoick_

On our long way through the fog, we see a ship hanging upside-down.

"That's not very encouraging…" someone whispers.

"Ah, I was wondering where that went" Gobber says.

Then, Flandre starts getting nervous. A strange buzzing is heard.

"Stay low. Ready your weapons" I order as the ships hit a rocky shore. We are here. A mansion surrounded by a red lava circle stands there. I make my way towards the prow, and observe the building. Some girl must've spotted us, as I see a purple figure disappearing in the roof.

"We're here" I mutter. I jump off the ship. As I land, the buzzing immediately stops, making me look around.

* * *

_POV – Hiccup_

Slowly, I lead Remilia out of the enclosure, my palm outstretched. Now that there isn't any threat here, she seems to be calm.

_POV – Astrid_

All the class seems to be enjoying this. Fishlegs and Ruffnut watch amazed, Tuffnut grins with excitement, Snoutlout… is scared? Well, that's new. Maybe he's too much scared, as he grabs a broken spear. I slap his arm.

"Uh-uh"

He puts down the weapon. Now, Hiccup leads the girl right towards us. Towards Snoutlout, actually.

_POV – Hiccup_

I grab Snoutlout's arm. "Wait, what are you-" I silence him, then Remilia gives him a short hiss. He better doesn't do any stupidity. I grab his arm again.

"It's ok, it's ok" I say, extending his arm. "Now look away" I whisper to Snoutlout. Insecure, he does what I told him, and happens what happened that day in the cove; Remilia repeats Snoutlout's gesture. He looks at front again, now laughing with joy. I walk towards a wooden box.

"Where you going?" Snoutlout asks, once again, scared. I rummage the box, and find some ropes.

"You're gonna need something to help you hold on" I say as I pick up some. All the teens look at the doors. Ran is the only one out.

* * *

_POV – Stoick_

All weapons are set up. Me and some of the men watch a battle plan traced in the sand.

"When these walls break open, all hell is going to break loose" I warn them.

"And my undies! Good thing I brought extras" Gobber says.

"No matter how it ends, it ends today!" I say loudly for all the warriors to hear. I lift up my hand, and signal the catapults to fire. They hit the walls in front of us, making an opening. I walk towards the mansion and stop in front of the dark tunnel. There's no light. No sound. Nothing. I signal the catapults again with my axe. One of them fires a burning payload that soars deep inside into the mansion. I see them; the light lets me see four girls in the entrance, waiting for us, observing our movements. The first though that comes to my head is that they're highly outnumbered. With a battle cry, I get inside and try to hit the girls with my weapon, but they all run away in pure _fear._ When they already came out, tons of fairies follow them. They do not attack anyone. No one manages to hit them. They just fly away.

_POV – Flandre_

All of them are running away. _All _of them. Patchi, Sakuya, Hong… Even Cirno, Daiyousei and other fairies living in the island fly away. This is not going to end in a good way, I feel it. They enraged _Him_.

_POV – Stoick_

"Is that it?" Gobber says, confused. He shrugs and walks towards the men.

"We've done it!" someone shouts, making the rest of the warriors yell victoriously. All but me. Something is not right. From the shore, I see Flandre desperately trying to get away. There's something more here.

"This isn't over!" I warn as I turn around. "Form your ranks, hold together!"

There's silence for a moment, right before a deafening roar is heard from the insides of the mansion. A roar so strong that it's wind is able to push us a few feet away. Then, the walls and the ground start to crack, making an earthquake around the beach.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: Battling the Dragon**

* * *

_POV – Stoick_

"Beard of Thor, what is that?" Gobber asks shocked as a _colossal _dragon bursts from the mansion. Its snout is long and fine, with lots of sharp teeth coming out of it. Its eyes are a pure red, and two long yellow horns are placed above them. Its body is long, like a snake's. So long that the dragon would need hours to get out of the mansion if it was outstretched. It has four legs, which end on four fingers with fine, curved claws. The tip of its tail is a massive mace.

"Odin help us…" is all I can say, my eyes open wide. I look at the beast as it comes out, roaring.

"Catapults!" someone yells. The weapons score direct hits at the dragon's head, but they make no single effect. Its scales are as tough as a mountain. The dragon bites one of the catapults, destroying it completely.

"Get to the ships!" another man shouts.

"No, no!" I yell, predicting the beast's next move. Sure enough, the dragon breathes a stream of fire at the ships. The men manage to jump out of them before they get burned.

"Smart, that one" Gobber says as he walks up to me. Suddenly, Hiccup's words flash through my head.

'_There's something more on their island. Dad, I promise that you can't win this one! You don't know what you're up against!'_

"I was a fool" I say after remembering these words. I should've listened. "Lead the men to the far side of the island!" I order one of the warriors. "Gobber, go with the men!"

"I think I'll stay, just in case you were thinkin' of doing something crazy" he says.

"I can buy a few minutes if I give that thing something to hunt!"

Before leaving, Gobber grabs my forearm.

"Then I can double that time"

I smile at him, appreciating his loyalty. We both scream battle cries, and rush towards the dragon, which almost eats a man. I grab a wooden stake from the ground and throw it at the dragon's head. It bounces on it. The creature lowers its head to examine us.

"Fight me!" I yell.

"No, me!" Gobber shouts back.

Then, the dragon takes a breath, ready to breathe its fire. Before that could happen, though, a blue blast hits its head, making it stop.

From right behind the dragon, I see various girls flying around, and, for my surprise, the teens with them; I can spot Ran with Fishlegs, Reimu with Snoutlout, Marisa with the twins and Remilia with Astrid and Hiccup. I only manage to mouth something.

"Look at us! We teamed up with girls! All of us!" Tuffnut yells.

Gobber walks next to me, astonished. "Every bit of boar-headed, stubborn Viking you ever were" he says. I just nod, words not arriving at my mouth.

_POV – Hiccup_

Ruff, Tuff, watch your backs! Move, Fishlegs!" I shout at the group. This time we count with the help of Reimu and Marisa, so maybe this will go right. "Fishlegs, break it down!" I tell Fishlegs, who's hovering around with Ran.

"Ok. Heavily armored skin and a tail for bashing and crushing. Stay away from that! Small eyes, large nostrils. Relies on hearing and smelling" Fishlegs analyzes.

"Ok. Lout, Legs, hang on its blind spot. Make some noise, keep it confused. Ruff, Tuff, find out if it has a shot limit. Make it mad!" I order the group.

"That's my specialty" Ruffnut says.

"Since when? Everyone knows I'm more irritating, see?" Tuffnut says, making irritating noises. Marisa rolls her eyes.

"Just do as I told you, I'll be back as soon as I can"

Astrid and me fly towards the burning ships with Remilia, whose wings are like three times longer than they were before.

_POV – Overview of Fishlegs, Snoutlout and the twins_

"Troll!"

"Butt elf!"

"Bride of Grendel!"

That's what the twins say at the Dragon. In annoyance, it shoots a brief flame at them. Marisa easily dodges it.

Fishlegs and Snoutlout are on the sides of the Dragon's head, banging their shields with hammers. The Dragon looks directly at Fishelgs, who stops hitting his shield.

"I don't think this thing has a blind spot!" he realizes out loud.

_POV – Hiccup_

We fly through the smoke. Then I see her.

"There!" I shout, pointing at the ship Flandre is in. Remilia flies close enough to the ship for me to jump in. "Go help the others!" I tell Astrid. Remilia hesitates before taking off.

"Alright, hold on, hold on" I tell Flandre as I use all my strength to disengage the chains that hold her wings.

_POV – Overview of Astrid, Fishlegs and Snoutlout_

"It's working!" Snoutlout yells at Fishelgs from the other side of the Dragon's snout while banging his shield. But they both are not aware that Ran and Reimu are starting to get dazed by the irritating noises. Reimu loses balance on her flight for a moment and hits the Dragon's snout, knocking off Snoutlout from her. He almost falls the creature's muzzle. Ran also loses her flight, and starts spinning around.

"I'm losing power" Fishelgs says. "Snoutlout, do something!" he yells as he tosses Snoutlout his hammer. Ran lands roughly on the ground, knocking off Fishelgs. "I'm ok!" he yells at no one in particular. Ran flips back onto him. "Less ok…"

Snoutlout starts to hit the Dragon's eye with his hammer.

"I can't miss! What's wrong buddy, you've got something in your eye?"

The Dragon roars in anger, lifting up its foreleg right above Fishlegs and Ran. Astrid flies with Remilia next to him.

"Yeah, you're the Viking!" she yells. Snoutlout gets momentarily distracted by this. That's when the beast shakes its head and makes him loose balance. He holds himself to one of the horns.

_POV – Hiccup_

While I'm trying to get rid of the metal bars, the dragon's tail hits the mast of the ship, which almost falls on top of me. Then, its hind leg smashes the ship, throwing us both to the water. I swim desperately towards Flandre and try my best to disengage the chains. Despite my efforts, I'm not able to. Then everything turns black.

_POV – Stoick_

I grab Hiccup's shirt from the back and leave him on a rock in the shore. He coughs.

"…Dad?"

I dive into the water and swim towards the girl. We stare at each other for some seconds. I grab the metal bars and break them, letting Flandre free. She gets to the surface with me within a second. Flandre lands in a rock and flicks her head towards the dragon.

"You got it, Flan" Hiccup says, running next to her. Before he can go, I grab his arm.

"Hiccup, I'm sorry. F- for everything…" I apologize.

"Yeah, me too" he apologizes back.

"You don't have to go up there" I say worried, looking at the sky, then back at him. Hiccup smiles.

"We're Vikings. It's an occupational hazard"

I grab his arm with both of my hands. "I'm proud, to call you my son" I say, now letting his arm go. He looks at me.

"Thanks Dad"

Hiccup ties part of the rope to him and they start flying.

_POV – Overview of Astrid, Snoutlout and the twins_

"He's up!" Astrid yells as she sees Flandre and Hiccup shoot up to the sky. "Get Snoutlout out of there!"

"I'm on it!" Ruffnut and Tuffnut say simultaneously.

"I'm on it first!"

"I'm ahead of you!"

They start arguing, and Remilia grunts because of their annoyance. With a sigh, Reimu flies towards the Dragon's snout and gets Snoutlout out.

_POV – Astrid_

We fly towards the rest, when I notice that Remilia is not flying forward anymore. The dragon takes a deep intake of breath, pulling us both towards its open mouth. Remilia flies as fast as she can, but it's not enough. Suddenly, I hear that subsonic whine. A powerful explosion hits the creature right on the mouth, knocking me off Remilia.

When I'm pretty much close to the ground, someone grabs me by the legs. It's Flandre.

"Did you get her?" Hiccup asks.

She looks down at me. I smile, and she smiles back. She flips me around and puts me down in the ground.

"Go…" I mutter, worried about them both.

_POV – Hiccup_

"I've heard this thing flies" Flandre tells me.

"Well, let's see if it really can" I say, as Flandre turns around. We fly down at an outstanding speed, Flandre's wings making that subsonic whine. Now I know where it comes from. She shoots various red energy balls at the dragon's body, making it fall by the force of the impact.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: Coming back around**

* * *

"You think that did it?" I ask as I look at behind, to see the dragon flying towards us. It flies by stirring its body. Oh well, I thought it needed wings. I nod at myself as I see it chasing us.

"Well it can fly" I tell Flandre.

"No, really?" she says sarcastically.

We fly towards a maze of sea rocks. The dragon destroys them like if they were made of simple twigs. It doesn't get damaged by them, so we'll have to try something different. I look up at the clouds. They're all over the sky and are black. An idea comes to my head.

"Alright Flandre. Time to disappear" I say. Flandre nods and flies towards the dark sky with the dragon right behind us.

As we get closer to the clouds, I hear the sound of gas. The dragon is about to breathe its fire.

"Here it comes!" I warn Flandre, who quickly dodges the blast with some of my help. Flandre gets inside the clouds, and the dragon is unable to find us. It looks all around; it can't see us, but we can see it. Flandre shoots a purple energy ball at it, making it look at where it came from while we get behind it. We hit the dragon once and once again, the sky illuminates with a blue-white light at each explosion. The dragon suddenly roars in anger, and starts breathing fire all over like it was crazy.

"Watch out!" I warn Flandre, trying my best to help her dodge the gigantic flames. But for my horror, the prosthetic crystals set on fire. This fire is stronger than what I thought. "Alright, time's out. Let's see if this works"

Flandre retracts both wings and we start the fastest dive we've ever performed, falling at an outstanding speed, but with the dragon still _right _behind us. I can notice Flandre is starting to get scared.

"Stay with me buddy, work good, just a little bit longer" I tell Flandre, noticing that I can barely control the crystals now.

I hear the gas forming on the dragon's mouth. I close my eyes, and listen carefully to it.

"Hold, Flandre…" Then, I hear it becoming louder. "Now!" I shout. Flandre turns around, and shoots a red energy ball directly at the dragon's open mouth, making it burn inside.

When the dragon sees the ground, it tries to stop, but it can't. The dive is way too fast for it, but not for us. When we're about to reach it, Flandre spreads her wings and we fly above the dragon's long back. It crashes on the ground, making a terrifying explosion. We escape the blast, which is almost faster than us. I try to maneuver with the shades to get out of there, but they disengage because of the fire melting the metal clips that attached them to the wing. Flandre stops in mid air, and in front of the dragon's tail mace. _That's coming directly at us._

"No…" I mutter, while Flandre tries her best to get away from it. The tail gets closer and closer. "No!"

Then, it hits us, and everything turns black, once more.

_POV – Flandre_

Hiccup falls towards the explosion. I have to do something, even if I can fly correctly. I _must _save him.

"Hiccup!" I yell, trying to reach out for him.

* * *

_POV – Stoick_

I can't see a thing. There's only smoke and ashes around me. I look all over the beach, in search of Hiccup.

"Hiccup!" I yell, expecting to hear his voice from anywhere. "Hiccup! Son!"

Then, I see it. The girl lying there, unmoving.

"Hiccup…" I mutter, expecting the worst. I run towards the girl. But there are no signals of Hiccup. It's only her, with burn marks all over and her back turned to me.

"Oh son…" I whisper, falling down my knees, my head completely hanging. "I did this…"

I hear the men walking towards us.

_POV – Astrid_

I make my way through the crowd, just to see Stoick kneeling and Flandre lying on the ground. I gasp, feeling totally hopeless for the first time in my life. Everyone lower their heads, and the girls that lived in the mansion return, sadness filling their expressions. Remilia walks next to Stoick, probably feeling the same way as him.

_POV – Stoick_

The other girl, Remilia, walks next to me, worried about Flandre. Flandre slowly turns her head to me.

"I'm so… I'm so sorry…" I whisper in the verge of tears. Her eyes slightly widen, and she turns around, revealing…

"Hiccup!" I yell, scooping him up. I put away my helmet and press my ear to his chest.

"He's alive… You brought him back alive!" I yell, almost crying, but this time with happiness.

_POV – Astrid_

I'm about to scream with pure joy. Hiccup is alive! Everyone is celebrating now, I even see Snoutlout crying. The girls laugh in happiness.

_POV – Astrid_

"Thank you, for saving my son" I tell Flandre, who simply smiles and lowers her head. Remilia returns the smile while Gobber walks next to me and examines Hiccup.

"Well, you know… Most of him…" he says.

* * *

_POV – Hiccup_

The first thing I realize is that I'm hearing an echoing voice calling my name in my head. The second on is that I'm on a bed. I slowly open my eyes, and see Flandre next to me, smiling with happiness.

"Hey Flandre" I mutter. She starts to circle around and laugh. "I'm happy to see you too Flan, now just- OW!" Flandre accidentally pressed her hand against my belly, trying to get me off the bed. I exasperatedly bolt to a sitting position. "What? Uh…" I say confused. "I'm in my house…" I turn my gaze towards Flandre. "Umm, you're in my house…!"

Flandre starts to run around, knocking off some things.

"Does Dad know you're here?" I ask. Flandre walks closer to me. "Oh, ok, ok"

She turns around and jumps onto a rafter. "Flan, no, no" I say, trying to make her stop. "Flandre!"

She stops and looks at me. "Oh, come on" I mutter. I get out of the bed and set aside bed sheet, which reveals… something that makes me fall in horror. Flandre comes down the rafter and looks expectantly at me. I look at her, then at the floor.

I step with my boot on the ground. Then, I step with my… iron prosthetic leg, which Flandre examines before looking back at me.

I sigh, and slowly get up. I try to walk, but this fake leg hurts more than what I imagined. I sigh again, and try to walk once more. This time I almost fall if it wasn't for Flandre, who helps me stand.

"Thanks, Flan" I mutter, as we start walking towards the door.

I slowly open it, and Reimu is there to greet me. I slam the door shut. "Flandre, stay here" I tell Flandre and open the door again. I see Snoutlout with Reimu. They both fly away, followed by Marisa, Ran and various other girls along with the teens.

"What…?" is all I manage to say when I see _all _the girls we know of wandering peacefully around Berk.

"I knew it. I'm dead" I say, unable to believe the scene before me.

"No, but you gave it your best shot" Dad says from behind me, wrapping his arm around me. "So, what do you think?"

I don't reply. No, not that. I _can't _reply. It's just like yesterday we hated girls and now they live with us. Suddenly, various Vikings walk over me, greeting me.

"Turns out all we needed was a little bit more of… this" Stoick says, pointing at me.

"You just gestured to all of me" I say, but not annoyed this time. Dad nods with a smile.

"Well, most of you" Gobber says as he approaches us. "That's a bit of my handiwork. With a little Hiccup flair thrown in. You think it'll do?"

I examine the prosthetic leg. "I might make a few tweaks" I say. Everyone around me starts laughing. Then, I feel a fist on my shoulder.

"_That's_, for scaring me" Astrid says, smiling.

"What, is it always gonna be this way? 'Cause I-"

Astrid grabs the front of my shirt and kisses me full on the mouth. I stay speechless for some seconds.

"-could get used to it…"

Astrid smiles again.

"Welcome home" Gobber says, handling me three new crystals.

"Flandre Scarlet!" someone shouts, making me look back at my house. Unable to contain her joy, Flandre runs towards me, dispersing the crowd and examining happily the new shards.

* * *

I put the crystals in position meanwhile Astrid gets next to us with Remilia.

"You ready?" I ask Flandre.

"Let's go!" she yells with excitement.

Before starting our flight, I look around the village, knowing that I'm the responsible of this _great _change.

**"This, is Berk. It snows nine months out of the year and hails the other three".**

Me and Astrid shoot to the sky and start going all around the island.

"**Any food that grows here is tough and tasteless".**

We fly right next to a man drinking from a mug. In surprise, he chokes on the beverage.

**"The people that grow here are even more so".**

We fly towards the docks. "Yeah!" I yell.

"**The only upsides are the allies"**

We fly across a bridge. Flandre lands and runs through it for some seconds, then follows Astrid.

"**While other places have guards, or things like that…"**

Fishlegs joins us with Ran, followed with Snoutlout with Reimu and the twins with Marisa.

"**We have…"**

We all fly straightly forming a V in the sky. Flandre and I break the formation and head right towards the clouds.

"**Awesome girls"**


End file.
